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RESISTANCE IS A DEFENSE AGAINST INSIGHT . This is not to be confused with obstacles to knowledge. Defenses are not inert barriers, but psychic configurations with dynamic force. Insight is not blocked, but actively opposed. And the knowledge that is kept from consciousness in the case of resistance is not out of reach because of its complexity, beyond man's cognitive ability to encompass or comprehend, but by virtue of its unacceptability to the ego.
The facts in repression are typically extraordinarily simple, such elemental concepts as "I love her" or "I hate him" or "I want what you have." It is not their cognitive complexity, but the affective accompaniments of such primitive constructs, with their anticipated retaliatory punishments or other consequences, which constitute the building blocks of the psychic armor around the forbidden thoughts or feelings which need to be kept captive, out of sight or conscious awareness.
The knowledge defended against by resistance to insight comprises the psychic elements maintained in repression. These include the fact of repression as well as the contents repressed. That a defense is itself defended against is not new or uncommon, but ubiquitous and typical. There is a motive to keep all aspects of conflict unconscious. In addition to defenses against forbidden impulses, there are defenses against subsequent instinctual