ABSTRACT
Resistance as a clinical concept emerged in Sigmund Freud's discussion of his early attempts to elicit 'forgotten' memories from his hysterical patients. The form and context of the resistance have come to be seen as a useful source of information to the therapist. The motives for resistance were seen to be the threat of arousal of unpleasant ideas and affects. Resistance was no longer regarded as a complete suppression of unacceptable mental content, but as being responsible for the distortion of unconscious impulses and memories so that they appear in disguise in the free associations of the patient. The so-called 'transference resistances' were regarded as the powerful obstacles in the path of psychoanalytic treatment. Freud saw the clinical phenomena of resistance as being intimately, related to the whole range of the patient's mechanisms of defence. Transference resistances include the conscious withholding by the patient of thoughts about the analyst, as well as reflecting unconscious transference thoughts which are defended against.
