The recognition of the resistance to poverty complements the recognition of needs, knowledge and pain. Recognising the resistance of people to their poverty encapsulates the tense relationship between people and their context. It presents people as having agency and as active in their struggle against poverty, and, at the same time, it presents their limiting, constraining living context. When the relationship between the two elements – the people and their context – is viewed through the lens of ‘resistance’, it can be seen to be marked by deep discomfort. Without minimising the effect of hardship and trauma on people's psychological life, my claim is that they do not accept poverty, do not idealise it and do not take it for granted; instead, they fight against it on a daily basis. Focusing on these efforts is a source of hope for social workers, and fruitful ground for building trust and partnership. Once we accept that people resist their poverty and hardship, the role of social workers is not to motivate them to change, but to identify their struggle and help them to make it a success. This chapter conceptualises and exemplifies ‘resistance’ and deals with the way in which it differs from other concepts such as ‘strengths’ and ‘agency’, as well as from the use of ‘resistance’ in psychoanalysis.

Introduction

In psychoanalysis, resistance is a psychic configuration of defence against insight. It describes various behaviours of avoiding raising unconscious material to the conscious level. Unconsciously, the subject avoids revealing impulses, emotions or memories that threaten psychic equilibrium. Resistance is evident in all uncooperative behaviour in treatment, whether in the refusal to accept an interpretation, the non-attendance of sessions, silence or repetitive talk, or coming late to or cancelling sessions. In this context, resistance is a manifestation of being stuck, stagnation, refusal to develop or an attempt to prevent development.

In critical thinking, resistance carries fundamentally different meanings. It does not describe a failure ‘to do the right thing’. Rather, it is an active effort by the subordinated to struggle with and to oppose domination. Thus, it acquires political significance. In the PAP, resistance is the struggle of people against poverty and hardship.