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{{Top}}résistance{{Bottom}}
=====Sigmund Freud=====
[[Freud]] first used the term "[[resistance]]" to designate the unwillingness to [[recall]] [[repressed]] [[memories]] to [[consciousness]].
=====Treatment=====
Since [[psychoanalytic treatment]] involves precisely such [[recollection]], the term soon came to denote all those obstacles that arise during the [[treatment]] and interrupt its [[progress]]:
<blockquote>"Whatever disturbs the progress of the [[work]] isa resistance."<ref>{{F}} ''[[Works of Sigmund Freud|The Interpretation of Dreams]]'', 1900a. [[SE]] IV-V, 517</ref></blockquote>
[[Resistance]] manifests itself in all the ways in which the [[subject]] breaks the "[[fundamental rule]]" of saying everything that comes into his [[mind]].
=====Psychoanalytic Theory=====
Though [[present]] in [[Freud]]'s work from the beginning, the [[concept]] of [[resistance]] began to play an increasingly important part in [[psychoanalytic theory]] as a result of the decreasing efficacy of [[analytic treatment]] in the decade 1910-20.
As a consequence of this, [[ego-psychology]] placed increasing importance on overcoming the [[patient]]'s [[resistance]]s.
=====Lacan's Criticism=====
[[Lacan]] is very critical of this shift in emphasis, arguing that it easily leads to an "inquisitorial" style of [[psychoanalysis]] which sees [[resistance]] as based on the "fundamental ill will" of the patient.<ref>{{S1}} p. 30</ref>
[[Lacan]] argues that this overlooks the structural [[nature]] of
[[resistance]] and reduces analysis to an [[imaginary]] [[dual relation]].<ref>{{E}} p. 78; {{Ec}} p. 333ff</ref>
[[Lacan]] does accept that [[psychoanalytic treatment]] involves "analysis of resistances," but only on condition that this phrase is [[understood]] correctly, in the [[sense]] of "[[knowing]] at what level the answer should be pitched."<ref>{{S2}} p. 43</ref>
In other [[words]], the crucial [[thing]] is that the [[analyst]] should be able to distinguish between interventions that are primarily orientated towards the [[imaginary]] and those that are orientated towards the [[symbolic]], and [[know]] which are appropriate at each [[moment]] of the [[treatment]].
=====Structural Resistance=====
In [[Lacan]]'s view, [[resistance]] is not a question of the ill will of the [[analysand]]; [[resistance]] is [[structural]], and it is inherent in the [[analytic process]].
This is due, ultimately, to a [[structural]] "incompatibility between desire and speech."<ref>{{E}} p. 275</ref>
Therefore there is a certain irreducible level of [[resistance]] which can never be "overcome".
<blockquote>"After the reduction of the [[resistance]]s, there is a residue which may be what is essential."<ref>{{S2}} p.321</ref> </blockquote>
=====Suggestion=====
This irreducible "residue" of [[resistance]] is "essential" because it is the respect for this residue that distinguishes [[psychoanalysis]] from [[suggestion]].
[[Psychoanalysis]] respects the [[right]] of the [[patient]] to resist [[suggestion]] and indeed values that [[resistance]].
<blockquote>"When the [[subject]]'s [[resistance]] opposes [[suggestion]], it is only a [[desire]] to maintain the [[subject]]'s [[desire]]. As such it would have to be placed in the ranks of positive [[transference]]."<ref>{{E}} p.271</ref></blockquote>
=====Analyst and Analysand=====
However, [[Lacan]] points out that while the [[analyst]] cannot, and should not try to, overcome all [[resistance]], he can minimise it, or at least avoid exacerbating it.<ref>{{S2}} p. 228</ref>
He can do this by recognizing his own part in the [[analysand]]'s [[resistance]], for "there is no other [[resistance]] to [[analysis]] than that of the [[analyst]] himself."<ref>{{E}} p. 235</ref>
This is to be understood in two ways:
=====Lure=====
The [[resistance]] of the [[analysand]] can only succeed in obstructing the [[treatment]] when it responds to and/or evokes a [[resistance]] on the part of the [[analyst]], i.e. when the [[analyst]] is drawn into the [[lure]] of [[resistance]] (as [[Freud]] was drawn into the [[lure]] of [[Dora]]'s [[resistance]]).
<blockquote>"The patient's resistance is always your own, and when a resistance succeeds it is because you [the analyst] are in it up to your neck, because you [[understand]]."<ref>{{S3}} p.48</ref></blockquote>
Thus the [[analyst]] must follow the rule of [[neutrality]] and not be drawn into the [[lures]] set for him by the [[patient]].
=====Interpretation=====
It is the [[analyst]] who provokes [[resistance]] by pushing the [[analysand]]:
<blockquote>"There is no resistance on the part of the subject."<ref>{{S2}} p.228</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>"[[Resistance]] is the present [[state]] of an [[interpretation]] of the [[subject]]. It is the manner in which, at the same [[time]], the subject interprets the point he's got to. ... It simply means that he [the patient] cannot move any faster."<ref>{{S2}} p.228</ref></blockquote>
[[Psychoanalytic treatment]] works on the [[principle]] that by not forcing the [[patient]], [[resistance]] is reduced to the irreducible minimum.
Thus the [[analyst]] must avoid all forms of [[suggestion]].
=====Ego=====
The source of [[resistance]] lies in the [[ego]]:
<blockquote>"In the strict sense, the [[subject]]'s [[resistance]] is linked to the [[register]] of the [[ego]], it is an effect of the [[ego]]."<ref>{{S2}} p.127</ref></blockquote>
=====Imaginary Order=====
Thus [[resistance]] belongs to the [[imaginary]] [[order]], not to the level of the [[subject]].
<blockquote>"On the side of what is [[repressed]], on the [[unconscious]] side of things, there is no [[resistance]], there is only a tendency to [[repeat]]."<ref>{{S2}} p.321</ref> </blockquote>
This is illustrated in [[schema L]]; [[resistance]] is the [[imaginary]] axis '''a-a'''' which impedes the insistant [[speech]] of the [[Other]] (which is the axis ''A-S'').
The [[resistance]]s of the [[ego]] are [[imaginary]] [[lures]], which the [[analyst]] must be wary of [[being]] [[deceived]] by.<ref>{{E}} p. 168</ref>
Thus it can never be the [[aim]] of [[analysis]] to "strengthen the [[ego]]," as [[ego-psychology]] claims, since this would only serve to increase [[resistance]].
=====Ego-psychology=====
=====Resistance and Defence=====
[[Lacan]] also criticizes [[ego-psychology]] for confusing the concept of [[resistance]] with that of [[defense]].
However, the [[distinction]] which [[Lacan]] draws between these two [[concepts]] is rather different from the way in which they are distinguished in Anglo-American [[psychoanalysis]].
[[Lacan]] argues that [[defence]] is on the side of the [[subject]], whereas [[resistance]] is on the side of the [[object]].
That is, whereas [[defence]]s are relatively [[stable]] [[symbolic]] [[structure]]s of [[subjectivity]], [[resistance]]s are more transitory forces which prevent the [[object]] from being absorbed in the [[signifying chain]].
==See Also==
{{See}}
* [[Analysand]]
* [[Defence]]
* [[Ego]]
||
* [[Ego-psychology]]
* [[Lure]]
* [[Psychoanalysis]]
||
* [[Repression]]
* [[Structure]]
* [[Subject]]
||
* [[Suggestion]]
* [[Treatment]]
* [[Unconscious]]
{{Also}}
==References==
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