Abstract
The concept of resistance has fallen out of favor, particularly in relational psychoanalysis. We’ve associated “resistance” with traditional analytic models—with the idea that therapeutic action lies in overcoming a patient’s defensiveness via interpretation. I invite resistance back into relational thinking by relocating the concept dyadically—in the realm of enactment—and by considering the potential presence of individual resistance within a relational paradigm.
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Joyce Slochower
Joyce Slochower, Ph.D., ABPP, is Professor Emerita of Psychology at Hunter College & the Graduate Center, CUNY; Faculty, NYU PostDoctoral Program, Steven Mitchell Center, National Training Program of NIP, Philadelphia Center for Relational Studies & PINC. She is the author of Holding and Psychoanalysis: A Relational Perspective (1996 and 2014) and Psychoanalytic Collisions (2006 and 2014). She co-edited (with Lew Aron and Sue Grand) De-idealizing Relational Theory: A Critique from Within and Decentering Relational Theory: A Comparative Critique. She is in private practice in New York City.