TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1997//
TI  - 'Too early, too late': endings in psychotherapy - an attachment perspective
JO  - British journal of psychotherapy
A1  - Holmes, Jeremy
SP  - 159
EP  - 171
VL  - 14
IS  - 2
N2  - Endings in psychoanalytic psychotherapy are often problematic, especially in publicly-funded therapies. Endings may be premature or delayed -?too soon?or?too late?. This paper looks at some parallels between endings in literature and endings in psychotherapy; considers the gender bias in Freud's?Analysis Terminable and Interminable?; introduces evidence from psychotherapy research; and puts forward an attachment-informed approach to ending, based on the distinction between avoidant and ambivalent attachment and how this may be played out by both therapist and patient in the transference-countertransfence matrix. A controlling therapist with an avoidant patient may end?too early?, an over-empathic therapist with an ambivalent patient may end?too late?. Clinical examples illustrate these theoretical points.<p />
LA  - en
SN  - 0265-9883
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-0118.1997.tb00367.x
ID  - ref1
ER  -