ABSTRACT
The spirit of therapy, as advocated by Billow, is dialogic and mutual: through close encounters with trusted, informed others, the authors revisit and revise narratives, amend cherished ideas about self and other, and expand interpersonal and intrapsychic freedom. However, the process of change never happens smoothly, and therapeutic impasses are inevitable. Therapeutic errors, shortcomings, and misattunements, real or perceived, if not equated with moral sins or dismissed as resistance, can provide useful links to transferences and unresolved traumas. Resistance, in the narrow sense, titrates the amount of emotional awareness one is able to tolerate. The reasons for resisting awareness are often quite compelling and may have to do with maturational and situational limitations. The goal is, of course, to move beyond manipulative power plays and moralistic accusations, towards a healthier, less desperate and demanding, even enjoyable, sense of entitlement.
