Re:Help - resistance

Hi Psych Student

First, whatever differences exist between writers is a combination of a number of factors including the writer's expertise and style, the period they are writng in, the context of the writing etc.

More importantly when we come to such big concepts as awareness and contact there is so much scope to piant on a wide canvas the lenght and depth and breath the concept... a bit like tellig people about water...there is so much to say from so many different perspectives.

Perls in his four lectures in Gestalt Therapy Now (edited by Fagan and Shepherd) provides an interesting formulae to define awareness..

Awareness = Experience = Reality = Now

Seems simple at first but when a movie like The Matrix gets a hold of this then Reality and Now become quite slippery terms eh :-)

I once traced out about seven different definitions fo contact in Gestalt therapy literature... all of which were useful and fitted ceratin contexts..

And so it is with resistance. Depends on the context this word is used. Words are like containers and we pour into them so much of our own meaning and feeling.

Resistance when a therapist is stuck can be a word to use to descibe the client... and lets the therapist off the hook of co-creation :-) Resistance when considered by a mountain climber climbing an icy peak can be something they crave... the contact with the mountain so they don't fall to their death...

I find the term creative adjustment to be useful one when exploring what meaning I will pour into the word resistance as it notes a process of growth and change which takes part as different aspects of the field come into contact with each other and don't necesarily head in the same direction... then a creative adjustment happens. I cannot be angry at mom so I'll project this unto the toy soldiers I am playing with and spare myself the direct contact with mom... creatively adjusting to a difficult field.... however if I do this all the time then this will dimish my ability to grow in relation to mom and others and will take on a negative experience and connotation...

Whether or not this process happens in awareness will determine my ability to choose how I am in relation to the other...

Brian

Replies:

Re:Help - resistance, by Psych Student, 05/28/03 Re:Help - resistance, by Brian ONeill, 05/29/03 Re:Help - resistance, by Psych Student, 06/02/03

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