Resistance is a mythical concept created by American novelist

Steven Pressfield Steven Pressfield (born September 1, 1943) is an American author of historical fiction, non-fiction, and screenplays, including his 1995 novel '' The Legend of Bagger Vance'' and 2002 non-fiction book '' The War of Art''. Early life Pressfi ...

that illustrates the universal force that he claims acts against human

creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary w ...

. It was first described in his non-fiction book '' The War of Art'' and elaborated in the follow-up books '' Do The Work'' and ''Turning Pro'', and in other essays.For example, . It is also a recurring theme in some of his fiction novels such as '' The Legend of Bagger Vance'' and '' The Virtues of War''. Resistance is described in a

mythical Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

fashion as a universal force that has one sole mission: to keep things as they are. Pressfield claims that Resistance does not have a personal vendetta against anyone, rather it is simply trying to accomplish its only mission. It is the force that will stop an individual's creative activity through any means necessary, whether it be rationalizing, inspiring

fear Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear ...

and

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil Turmoil may refer to: * ''Turmoil'' (1984 video game), a 1984 video game released by Bug-Byte * ''Turmoil'' (2016 video game), a 2016 indie oil tycoon video ...

, emphasizing other

distraction Distraction is the process of diverting the attention of an individual or group from a desired area of focus and thereby blocking or diminishing the reception of desired information. Distraction is caused by: the lack of ability to pay attention ...

s that require attention, raising the voice of an

inner critic Interior may refer to: Arts and media * ''Interior'' (Degas) (also known as ''The Rape''), painting by Edgar Degas * ''Interior'' (play), 1895 play by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck * ''The Interior'' (novel), by Lisa See * Interior de ...

, and much more. It will use any tool to stop creation flowing from an individual, no matter what field the creation is in. Pressfield goes on to claim that Resistance is the most dangerous element to one's life and dreams since its sole mission is to

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identiti ...

aspirations. He explains steps that human beings can take to overcome this force and keep it subdued so that they can create to their fullest potential, although Resistance is never fully gone. Pressfield's concept of Resistance has been cited by authors such as

Seth Godin Seth W. Godin is an American author and former dot com business executive. Background After leaving Spinnaker in 1986, he used $20,000 in savings to found Seth Godin Productions, primarily a book packaging business, out of a studio apartment in ...

, David M. Kelley and Tom Kelley,

Eric Liu Eric P. Liu (born 1968) is an American writer, former civil servant, and founder of Citizen University, a non-profit organization promoting civics education and awareness. Liu served as Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Policy ...

and the

Lincoln Center Institute Lincoln Center Education (LCE), is the education division of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Founded in 1975 as the Lincoln Center Institute. In 2013, the former Lincoln Center Institute received a $4 million grant from the Sherman Fairchi ...

, Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter, and

Gina Trapani Gina Marie Trapani (born September 19, 1975) is an American tech blogger, web developer, writer, and technology executive. Biography Trapani was born and raised in an Italian Catholic family in Brooklyn, New York. She began her writing career in ...

Criticism

Psychologist Frederick Heide has cited Pressfield's book '' The War of Art'' and questioned whether "fighting" Resistance is always a helpful metaphor; Heide suggested that such agonistic metaphors could end up "ironically perpetuating the resistance it predicts." Nevertheless, Heide noted, such an agonistic approach to resistance remains widespread in

psychotherapeutic Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome prob ...

thinking. Heide cites a scholarly article that points to some alternative nonagonistic strategies for working with resistance in relational psychoanalytic psychotherapy, personal construct therapy,

narrative therapy Narrative therapy (or Narrative Practice) is a form of psychotherapy that seeks to help patients identify their values and the skills associated with them. It provides the patient with knowledge of their ability to live these values so they can ...

motivational interviewing Motivational interviewing (MI) is a counseling approach developed in part by clinical psychologists William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick. It is a directive, client-centered counseling style for eliciting behavior change by helping clients to ...

, process-experiential therapy, and

coherence therapy Coherence therapy is a system of psychotherapy based in the theory that symptoms of mood, thought and behavior are produced coherently according to the person's current mental models of reality, most of which are implicit and unconscious. It was f ...

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Refend __NOTOC__ Creativity Literary concepts Mythological archetypes

Criticism

See also

Notes

References