Issues in Character and Resistance Analysis (Panel Presentation)1

PSYCHOANALYSIS STARTED AS a therapeutic modality by curing symptoms. When psychoanalysts widened their scope, inevitably the patient and his way of being in the world, became more and more the treatment issue. Today every analysis becomes character analysis sooner or later. The patient's and the analyst's personalities are exposed to and bruised by each other. In this process, they are either bogged down by transference and counter-transference issues, that is, character-determined issues, or emerge somewhat re-shaped by the encounter. No patient's character reframing takes place without a corresponding accommodation on the analyst's part. Each one, patient and analyst, has a different purpose and way of approaching the situation, but both participants have to change. This intent is acknowledged by the patient and intrinsic to his role. As I see interpersonal psychoanalysis, the psychoanalyst recognizes the inevitability of the immersion of his own character issues in the therapeutic process and responds in his own unique way to the challenges of every dyad. In this kind of chess game both players play instinctively the opening gambits. Character traits and temperament frame and color the patient's initial presentation and the analyst's initial technical moves. After the infinite variations of the middle game, a successful outcome is not unsimilar to a chess match. One player hopefully "loses" after his defenses are penetrated. For the loser giving up the king is necessary for a new and better beginning. The other player "wins, " but only after a protracted struggle and making sacrifices. To