2.7 Resistance: Rules of Technique Concerning Resistance

At this point I believe we can set down certain general principles for guidance in determining our technical procedure. These rules are meant to be not commands or laws but rather guideposts which indicate the general direction. All rules have to be used elastically; they have to suit the patient, the analyst, and the situation. A technical measure is valuable only if one comprehends the clinical problem, the patient's capacities, and the aims one is attempting to achieve. One can reach the same goal by taking bypaths and detours, but

on a long journey it is of practical importance to keep in mind a road map which indicates the terrain, the topography, the obstacles, etc. The rules that follow are such guidelines. They are particularly valuable when one feels lost or uncertain. Freud called the rules he set down “recommendations,” and he did not claim any unconditional acceptance for them. He felt that there was such diversity of psychical constellations and such a wealth of determining factors that any mechanization of technique would prove to be ineffective at times. Nevertheless, he did believe that certain procedures were useful for the average situation (Freud, 1913b, p. 123).

In the early days of psychoanalysis, the technique was focused on trying to obtain the repressed memories, the task was simply to make the unconscious conscious. Resistances could be evaded by making interpretations from the patient's free associations. Freud soon realized that the emphasis was wrong, that what was effective therapeutically was not getting the forgotten memory, but overcoming the resistance. Memories obtained with the resistances still intact would be powerless to bring about a change because they would succumb in the old way to the forces of resistance (1913b, p. 141). In 1914 Freud stated that it was the analyst's job to analyze and interpret the patient's resistances. If we succeed in this,