ABSTRACT
Resistance refers to the dynamics and defenses that block nonconscious-to-conscious processing, and there is always symbolization. Refusal, in contrast, involves a willful nonparticipation in discovering or learning about psychic material, with a goal often of suspending or blocking some mental activity. Resistance regulates emotional awareness. It defends and protects against emotional truths becoming too significant, too quickly, unduly affecting how we feel, think, and behave. In refusal, the individual, subgroup, or group detours, blocks access to, or invalidates the communicative instruments - thinking, empathy, and language - used to explore resistances and its derivatives. Refusal thus establishes a mental boundary between what is considered appropriate and inappropriate for intrapsychic or interpersonal dialogue. Nonconscious processes operate at all times, and we assume the existence of nonconscious fantasy and thought behind any thought and action. In the clinical moment it may not be clear what predominates, resistance or refusal, or the balance between them.
