ABSTRACT
Steiner describes the essential anxieties of the depressive position when he states: the depressive position can thus also be seen to contain gradations within it, particularly in relation to the question of whether loss is feared and denied or whether it is acknowledged and mourning is worked through. There are some patients encounter in psychoanalytic practice who are extremely resistant to moving towards the more integrated experiences of the depressive position. They consciously desire help, learning, and change; but, unconsciously they resist the move towards integration and depressive position relating. Instead, they try to find balance in their more primitive state of psychic equilibrium. In the transference, internal struggle emerges as a constant reluctance to join the analyst in any psychological shift forward towards emotional transformation and instead the patient favors the more concrete and external factors of daily life as their priority. This creates a therapeutic stand-off with an either/or and black-or-white type of stance in the transference.
