Psychoanalysts have until recently regarded as resistance whatever in the patient's behavior and experience opposes the psychoanalytic process. Resistance has more recently been viewed also as a guide to the patient's unconscious conflict and as necessary for his or her functioning. Daser points out that resistance and respect for the analyst, and the patient's insight, are closely related. Thus, resistance is not merely an obstacle to analysis, but in fact permits it to take place. It is important in separation, development of insight, and structural change. It is a necessary condition for interpretation and for understanding of the self, just as it is essential in the constitution of personality and for identity in general.