"jargon":   AMBIVALENCE, UNCONSCIOUS, RESISTANCE, DEFENSE,  INTROSPECTION,
RATIONALIZATION, INTELLECTUAL DEFENSES

Translations:

Have you ever noticed that some of the things you'd like to do just seem
blocked? That it feels as if  a part of you was getting in the way, stopping
you from doing what the rest of you wants to? Or keeps you continuing to do
what you'd really prefer to stop doing?

Well, you're not alone. At some time or another, most of us have had this
frustrating experience.

And it can be very puzzling, especially if we have no idea (which often is
the case) just why our good intentions are meeting such a difficulty.

The fact of the difficulty, plus the seeming obscurity or unreasonableness of
its cause seems to point to what psychoanalysts and psychotherapists call
AMBIVALENCE, or mixed feelings.

And when the feelings are not fully apparent to us, but we must guess at
their existence by the results they produce (or prevent), we can say that
they are happening, at least partially, outside our awareness. This refers to
what is called
THE UNCONSCIOUS by therapists and analysts.

When a strong enough conflict occurs at an unconscious level, that is,
outside our awareness, we often find ourselves behaving in ways that seem to
stalemate or get in the way of something we have mixed feelings about. In
this sort of situation, we may say we are encountering a RESISTANCE, which is
essentially an unconscious (out of awareness) way of fending off or
protecting ourselves, (DEFENSE), against an idea, feeling, or behaviour we
either fear, don't approve of, or have some other objection to.

At such times, one possible way to handle the situation is to pretend it
isn't happening. Sometimes we pretend so skilfully, we actually believe our
own pretense. This is often known as DENIAL.

Another response might be to look into our own thoughts and feelings, in an
effort to get in touch with what's going on. This is called INTROSPECTION.
If what's going on is touchy enough, we may enounter some real RESISTANCE to
continuing our inquiry. We may feel that the topic is not that important, or
that we are being indulgent in spending so much time and energy examining our
motives. These reasons for abandoning the inquiry often turn out to be
arguments in favor of something we want or against something we don't want.
These arguments are substitutes for more relevant information, and because
they seem pretty reasonable, they are called
RATIONALIZATIONS. That is, they substitute logic which feels safe for
feelings which are troubling. They become part of what are known as
INTELLECTUAL DEFENSES.


John Buksbazen
Santa Monica California