Where did RESISTANCE ANALYSIS come from and go?

It was originally based on the view that

1) productions are compromised formations which are always incomplete

2) patients can’t lift their own repression

3) gratification of dependency will remove their motivation to improve

4) optimal anxiety is best.

Weiss believes that you must help the patient realize that the dangers they fear, as foretold by their pathogenic beliefs, are not real.  The patients will face their dangers and disconfirm their beliefs by testing them.  They will set their own agenda.

So how does unconscious material become conscious?

Patients, when they feel safe, will lift oppressions on their own and will evaluate present and past situations in the light of the new relationship they have created with you.  Your best guide to the accuracy of your interpretation is the patient’s reaction to it.

Your patient’s pathology has developed primarily in relationship to your patient’s parents; it is crucial for your patient to see and understand how they were treated, how they interpreted it, how they complied with it, and how they internalized it.  They must learn that they did not necessarily deserve the treatment they received.

Are we no longer interested in understanding IMPULSES AND DEFENSES?

Patients need to understand why they have such impulses and defenses. They are often in the service of adaptation rather than a primary character flaw.  You must help your patient put their impulses and defenses in the context of their pathogenic beliefs.  For example:

• If you’re hostile to your wife, you may be ruining your marriage by fighting out of loyalty, as you saw that your dad did with his marriage.
• If you’re overly dependent you may believe that others want you to need them to make them feel important.
• If you’re withdrawn you may have had self-centered parents who you were unable to elicit interest from, teaching you shouldn’t bother to try.
• If your patient asks to see another therapist we don’t necessarily worry about splitting the transference, the patient is likely to be testing their freedom to separate from the therapist. If we interpret it as a dilution of the treatment, the patient might infer the therapist is fragile and narcissistic.

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