The Dynamics of the Dissolution of the Transference Resistance

In addition to the interpretation of the content of the unconscious, a considerable amount of the work in therapeutic analysis is required for the interpretation and dissolution of the resistances. Only through the dissolution of the resistances is it possible to interpret the content of the unconscious and to reconstruct the past.

We seek here to investigate the dynamics of the dissolution of a specific group of resistances called transference resistances. Transference resistances are of a peculiar importance, as they can be observed throughout the course of analysis and are very often the common ground on which other types of resistances find the possibility of expressing themselves.

Before we can approach the dynamics of the dissolution of these resistances, it will be necessary to acquaint ourselves with the dynamics of the development of these resistances. Let us repeat what Freud wrote about the origin of the transference resistance in his paper, The Dynamics of the Transference:

Now as we follow a pathogenic complex from its representative in consciousness (whether this be a conspicuous symptom or something apparently quite insignificant) back to its root in the unconscious, we soon come to a place where the resistance makes itself felt so strongly that it affects the next association, which has to appear as a compromise between the demands of this resistance and those of the work of exploration. Experience shows that this is where the transference enters on the scene. When there is anything in the complex-material (the content of the complex), which can be at all suitably transferred to the person of the physician, such a transference will be effected and from it will arise the next association; it will then manifest itself by the signs of resistance—for instance, a cessation in the flow of associations. We conclude from such experiences that this transferred idea is