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Premature interruption of psychotherapy: continuation of contact by telephone and correspondence

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.134.2.200

The author collected data on 15 patients for whom therapy was interrupted because of a move to a distant city by the analyst or the patient. He found that 14 of these patients refused to accept transfer to another analyst as urged by their analyst; instead, they continued contact by phone and/or correspondence with the analyst for long periods of time. Continuation of contact was not related to diagnosis but perhaps to a basic inability of these patients to face and work through separation or to some type of special patient-therapist relationship.

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