Recontact with the Analyst Following Termination: A Survey of Seventy-One Cases

Abstract

A questionnaire was sent to graduate members of the Denver Psychoanalytic Society asking for their experience with patients making contact with them after the analysis. They reported that within three years after termination two thirds of “successfully analyzed” patients had recontacted them. Seventy-one cases were surveyed. Most contacts were brief and did not seem to be the result of incomplete analysis. Rather, they aimed to satisfy ongoing needs for: (1) the continuing deidealization of the analyst, (2) the reactivation of the self-analytic function, and (3) the restructuring of self- and object representations by reporting developmentally significant accomplishments to the former analyst. The analyst's acknowledgement appears to be an integral part of the restructuring. This is work which either cannot be done before termination or the need for which has not been recognized during the analysis.

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