2.6 Resistance: Technique of Analyzing Resistances

Before launching into a detailed discussion of technical problems it is well to review some fundamental points. Psychoanalysis as a

technique came into existence only when resistances were analyzed and not avoided or overcome by other means. One cannot define psychoanalytic technique without including the concept of the consistent and thorough analysis of resistance. It is important to remind ourselves again of the intimate relationship between resistance, defense, ego functions, and object relations.

Resistance is not only to be understood as opposition to the course of analysis, although that is its most direct and obvious clinical manifestation. The study of a patient's resistances will shed light on many basic ego functions as well as on his problems in relating to objects. For example, the absence of resistances may indicate that we are dealing with a psychotic process. A sudden burst of obscene and abusive language and behavior in a hitherto prim and proper housewife may be such a manifestation. Furthermore, resistance analysis also illuminates the way the various ego functions are influenced intrastructurally by the id, the superego, and the external world. In addition, resistances to the therapeutic procedures repeat the neurotic conflicts among the different psychic structures. As a result the analytic situation gives the analyst an opportunity to observe firsthand, on his analytic couch, compromise formations which are analogous to symptom formations. The ever-changing relationship between the forces of the resistances on the one hand, and the urge to communicate on the other, may be seen at its clearest in the patient's attempts at free association. This is one of the reasons free association is considered the primary instrument of communication in psychoanalytic procedure.

The term “analyzing” is a condensed expression for many technical procedures all of which further the patient's insight (see Section 1.32). At least fou