The termination phase of psychoanalysis in a narcissistic personality.

Abstract

This paper describes a patient whose termination phase of analysis activated an intense mourning reaction that helped to overcome the stalemate of therapy. After I attempted to demonstrate how her narcissistic armouring yielded when the termination of analysis was agreed upon, the psychological reenactment of a split off (disavowed) trauma of an early loss (her father) and the failure of essential attributes in maternal care became manifested behind her narcissistic defenses. The reconstruction of these events was possible during the process of mourning. At the termination phase she behaved as if she "had lost the war"; from the point of view of her masochism it was a Pyrrhic victory, "a victory through defeat". Contrary to mother, I let her go but then she refused to go, which created a situation that activated a profound mourning reaction leading to important structural changes. A review of the pertinent psychoanalytic literature on termination along with clinical material derived from the termination phase of a patient with a narcissistic personality is presented.