ABSTRACT
Resistance is a prized signpost for the therapist. It frequently gives direction and understanding of previously undisclosed conflicts in the client that have remained unconscious or consciously too painful to disclose to another individual. In an analogy, people have advertently or inadvertently waded through the seaweed of symptomatology and found the underlying cause or causes for the ongoing conflict. In dynamic therapy, resistance indicates that an ego defense mechanism is in operation in order to maintain and keep in place repression of highly charged, anxious, and emotionally uncomfortable material. A defense mechanism is a psychological manifestation that is designed to protect the self from disorganization and hurt. These defensive manifestations are activated when the individual feels the escalation of anxiety in relation to a personal issue that is interpreted, whether consciously or unconsciously, as dangerous. The unconscious is not some mystical esoteric phenomenon but rather a process that is keeping something from awareness.
