During psychoanalysis, the defensive tendency of the unconscious part of the ego to ward off from consciousness particularly threatening repressed material.

(psychiatry) an unwillingness to bring repressed feelings into conscious awareness

In psychoanalysis, a term describing the patient's failure to associate freely and say whatever enters her head.

Freud's term for a force that opposes the healing process, such as when a patient is unable to continue the process of "free-associa­tion" because some "repressed" material is preventing further progress. (Contrasts with "cathexis".)

"Resistance" as initially used by Sigmund Freud, referred to patients blocking memories from conscious memory. This was a key concept, since Freud's talk therapy's primary treatment method required making these memories available to the patient's consciousness.