The interminable patient: a case history.

Abstract

The author, a psychoanalyst with over 30 years in practice, has been committed when possible to conducting psychodynamic treatments of less than three years duration with a frequency of sessions of once a week. These have been the majority of her cases. The case presented, though, is one of a small number where the author has conducted psychodynamic treatment for over ten years' duration. In this detailed report she discusses her treatment approach and provides theoretical principles for such prolonged therapeutic encounters.