ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the linguistic manifestations of the interactional phenomenon of resistance. Although the task of every client in counseling or psychotherapy is to use everyday language to discuss his or her experiences in as free and open a manner as possible, clients in psychotherapy frequently block emotions and withhold personally revealing material. The motivation for this opposition, according to Freud (1901/1960), Greenson (1967), and Mahalik (1994), is always the avoidance of some painful feeling. Some of the negative emotions include sadness, grief, sense of loss, remorse, shame, anger, hostility, resentment, and guilt. Although one of the greatest problems facing healthcare providers such as doctors or therapists is non-compliance with therapeutic suggestions, the oppositional behavior called resistance is little understood. Not all of it is intrapsychic; some is interactional.
