On Resistance

Abstract

Psychotherapy is not about cure, but rather about developing the capacity to suffer—and enjoy—truth. Resistance signifies proximity to unarticulated truths in the here-and-now therapeutic situation. I have suggested elsewhere that it is useful to distinguish among various clinical phenomena, usually subsumed under the broad term resistance, specifically, subcategories of rebellion and refusal. In this paper, I elaborate on a narrower, more precise sense of resistance, which I apply to the group situation. As a basic, and ongoing, mental process, resistance always involves symbolizing. Stimulated by psychosocial circumstance, resistance accumulates internally and interpersonally, often preceded by unspecific and unpredictable sources of arousal: not only nonconscious and irrational, but also conscious, environmental, sociopolitical, and interpersonal. In the human struggle to process and integrate difficult and often painful emotional truth, resistance develops, emerges, and evolves; it is communicated and understood within relational contexts.