Erasing the Other: Disavowal and Object Annihilation in Unilateral Termination.

Authors

Kris Di Wu, Sophia Shieh, Derrick Hassert

Published in

Psychoanalytic review. Volume 113. Issue 3. Pages 309-329.

Abstract

Human bonds confront the inevitability of their end: In psychoanalysis, this truth is reflected in termination, which differs from relational ruptures in its staged intentionality. Termination is the final act of analysis itself, wherein the subject's relation to desire and therapeutic gains is accosted. The notion of a "good enough termination," rooted in Winnicott's concept of the "good enough mother," privileges reparative continuity over ideals of closure. As maternal failures allow a child to confront reality, the clinician's capacity to survive ruptures models relational endurance. Yet unilateral terminations-either by analyst need or institutional countertransference-risk foreclosing this potential: Termination acquires heightened ethical stakes. This paper engages with Levinas, Winnicott, and neuropsychoanalysis to underscore how a good enough termination is both an ethical and a biological process that leaves the work open rather than falsely complete. Termination becomes a generative site for working through fragility and injustice in relational life.

PMID:
42766406
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 22 Sep 2026.

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