ABSTRACT
At times the therapeutic conversation reaches an impasse. It has a repetitive quality, and is without imagination or spontaneity. A deadlock is reached in which it seems impossible to move forward. The causes of impasse are various and not all are yet understood. Those which can be identi®ed include the systems of accommodation and avoidance (discussed in Chapters 17, 18); the effect of the expectational ®eld in replicating aspects of the original traumatic system in either or both the therapeutic situation and the individual's social environment; the absence of re¯ective selfawareness on the part of the therapist.1 Another kind of impasse is the subject of this chapter. Although it may not be the whole answer, it seems likely that the system of attachment has an important part to play in this form of impasse.
