Thinking as a narcissistic resistance

Verbal thought occupies a preeminent place in psychoanalytic theory and practice. The patient keeps out of conscious awareness, ultimately, what is unrepresentable, therefore unthinkable. The analyst helps the patient find ways to think about the unthinkable, both to reconstruct the past and free himself from it. The patient's role in this process involves a challenge comparable to the analyst's, in balancing and shifting between free association and objectifying thought. His capacity to progressively adapt his thinking and language to meet these therapeutic needs is a sensitive indicator that the narcissistic disturbance is healing. Conversely, incapacity to do so results in therapeutic stalemate or incomplete treatment.