Panel Reports—Resistances in Child Analysis1

In his opening remarks, Gregory Rochlin stated that while we are prone to give sweeping emphasis to the distinctions between the resistances of the child in analysis and those of the adult, we have not been specific in defining these distinctions. He further suggested that specific types of resistance may bear a relation to specific maturational phases, and that this relation may be particularly important in delineating the nature of transference in various age groups. Of importance, also, is to what degree the transference is internalized, and to what degree it is fluid.

Elsie L. Haug then presented a paper on "Some Developmental Aspects of Resistance in Children, " with special emphasis on the issue of resistance in the transference neurosis and of the transference neurosis. In Haug's terms, an internal conflict is the result of the internalization of the external conflict the child has experienced with his mother in respect to her attitudes toward his instinctual strivings. When internal forces threaten the emergence of the repressed, defense is used to inactivate these; when the analyst attempts to lift the repression, resistance is employed to inactivate him. In a phase of resistance, the internal conflict becomes unconscious and reappears in the form of an interpersonal conflict between the patient and the analyst. This transformation of internal conflicts into interpersonal ones is frequently employed by children, not only in their relationship to the analyst, but to their parents as well.

Haug traced the development of the capacity to substitute interpersonal conflict for internalized conflict. Although making the point that this process is active in all libidinal phases, Haug chose the anal phase for elaboration of her theme. On the one hand, the compliant behavior of the child at this time makes for interpersonal harmony, but a lessening of instinctual pleasure;