The Forward Edge of Resistance
Toward the Dignity of Human Agency
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21630640 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter Shabad (Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 51-63 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychoanalytic Dialogues (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1048-1885 • E-ISSN: 1940-9222 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10481885.2019.1702386 |
| OpenAlex | W3004873131 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 5 |
Psychoanalysts have traditionally viewed the patient’s resistance as an obstacle to treatment progress. In this paper, I will view resistance in relation to the primary asymmetry built into the treatment relationship with regard to help seeking – patients are help seekers and analysts are designated helpers. More specifically, since there is an ethical privilege and power derived from the self-confidence in providing help to another person, there is a subtle hierarchical subject-object relationship that emerges from the relative dignity or indignity with regard to help-seeking. In this view, resistance is seen as the patient’s attempt to reclaim the dignity of his/her agency as a human subject. Since the patient often feels stymied by a fatalistic inertia in living his/her life, the patient’s resistance of “I Won’t,” instead of a fatalistic “I Can’t,” provides a pathway for the analyst to respect the patient’s resistance as a manifestation of the patient’s need for self-determination
Biology · Dignity · Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution · Epistemology · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Computer Science · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology · Artificial Intelligence
| Citations per year | 0.4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2023 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |