RESISTANCE AND APPRECIATION

Until recently, in psychoanalysis everything was regarded as resistanc e, that in the experience and in the behaviour of the patient and the therapeut opposes the psychoanalytic process. Although resistance was viewed since Freud to be an essential guide to the unconscious conflic t and the necessity of resistances for the ''psychic functioning'' of the patient was also emphasized (Mertens 1991, p. 75), resistance was ultimately viewed as a phenomenon directed against analysis. I want to complete this view by bringing out the constructive impact of resista nce on the dynamic dialogue. In this dynamics resistance and appreciat ion, respect and insight are mutually related to each ether. Resistanc e is within the context of this reciprocity not an obstacle, but a con dition for the possibility of analysis. It is, embedded in the correla tion of separation, developing insight and structural change, a necess ary pre-condition for interpretation and self-experience just as for t he constitution of personality and identity in general.