Resistance in Psychotherapy

Patients enter psychotherapy because they suffer from distressing symptoms or relationship problems and want to change something about them. At the same time, change is frightening: on the one hand, it calls into question an often painstakingly achieved psychological balance. On the other hand, the many abysses that patients must overcome on their developmental path still lie shrouded in fog. That is why they oppose the therapeutic process of change with various forms of resistance from the very beginning. This volume explores how this phenomenon is understood across different therapeutic approaches and what it means in clinical work. The eight forms of resistance identified in psychoanalysis are presented in detail using illustrative case vignettes. The book highlights the importance of the psychodynamic principle that resistance must be addressed before the underlying content can be explored and shows why all forms of therapy risk failure when it is not recognized and worked through.

Thomas Abel is a licensed psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, trauma therapist, ISTFP-certified therapist in Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP), group analyst, supervisor and training analyst. He is based in Berlin, where he works in private practice within the German public health system. He also teaches at several psychotherapy and psychoanalytic training institutes.