“On Terminating, Ending, and Not Ending"
Stephen Purcell, MD, FIPA
“As I began to think, self-consciously, about termination, I had the surprising realization that, despite being involved in the endings of many analyses, I did not know with clarity or in any theoretical detail how I thought about the subject.” So begins Stephen Purcell, with characteristic humility, his exploration of analytic termination—a dimension of psychoanalysis with which Sigmund Freud (1937) himself famously struggled in Analysis Terminable and Interminable.
Stephen Purcell presents his paper, “On Terminating, Ending, and Not Ending.” He reflects on formative experiences with analytic terminations, including the first termination he was involved in when he was a candidate, and offers tentative conclusions about two principles that appear central to all terminations. He also addresses some of the complexities of ending very long analyses; mechanisms by which an analyst’s theory may shape the phenomena of termination; how we might understand themes of death in termination; the enduring questions surrounding post-termination contact between analysts and their patients—raising, finally, the related issue of whether analytic relationships ever can, or should, ever truly be ended.
Learning Objectives:
After attending this scientific meeting, participants will be able to:
1. Specify processes by which some phenomena of termination might be shaped by the analyst’s theory.
2. Recognize aspects of termination that are complicated by a patient’s history of trauma.
3. Understand themes of “death” in termination processes as having multiple underlying sources.
About the Presenter
Stephen Purcell, MD, FIPA is a psychoanalyst practicing in Portland, Oregon. He comes from an eclectic theoretical background, and his current interests are the sequelae of early relational trauma/dissociation and non-verbal aspects of therapeutic process. He has published book chapters and articles on termination, dissociation, the analyst’s way of being, theory as a source of countertransference, the treatment of perverse character structures, the clinical impact of the analyst’s attitude toward pharmacotherapy, and a professional memoir describing formative experiences leading to his career as a psychoanalyst. His most recent papers are “Un-thinking Technique: On Being, Not Doing in the Psychoanalysis of the Sequelae of Trauma” and “The Bartleby Phenomenon: Notes on a Difficult Transference/Countertransference Configuration.” Dr. Purcell is on the faculties of the Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute, the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis and the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California
About the Moderator
Nancy C. Winters, MD, FIPA is a psychoanalyst practicing in Portland, Oregon. She is a training and supervising analyst at the Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute and the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and a Clinical Professor at the Oregon Health & Science University. Her publications and recent presentations include: Co-editor of Body as Psychoanalytic Object: Clinical Applications from Winnicott to Bion and Beyond (2022); “Autoimmunity and its Expression in the Analytic Situation: Contemporary Reflections on Our Inherent Self-Destructiveness” (IJP, 2022); “A Home to the Lie: The Contemporary (Per)Version of Truth” (AJP, 2023); “Transformations in O Online: Group Process in the Virtual Realm” (PQ, 2024); and recent papers, “The Liar and the Truth-Teller: An Analytic Dialogue” (Lisbon, 2025) and “Schubert’s Final Piano Sonata in B-Flat Major as a Metaphor for Analytic Termination” (Seattle, 2025).
