What is Antagonism?
Afterword, Painting by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, 2019
Antagonism, in a psychodynamic sense, is a pattern of oppositional or hostile attitudes that can come up in a patient’s thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and relationships. It is usually as a result of deeper emotional conflicts that exist outside of conscious awareness, even though it may appear as irritability, defiance, stubbornness, or a tendency to challenge others. Psychodynamic psychotherapy understands antagonism as communication that reflects underlying vulnerabilities or past relational experiences instead of simply disruptive or intentional.
From this perspective, antagonism may develop as a defensive response to protect the patient from feelings that are experienced as overwhelming or threatening. For example, anger or dismissiveness may serve to prevent shame, fear of rejection, guilt, or a sense of helplessness. Early relational environments, especially those involving inconsistency, invalidation, criticism, or emotional neglect, can influence how a patient comes to expect and respond to others. Over time, these patterns may become internalised, leading the patient to anticipate conflict or betrayal even in safe or supportive relationships.
Antagonism can also appear within the therapeutic relationship itself, a concept known as transference. A patient may experience the therapist as critical or untrustworthy, even when this is not the case, and respond with resistance or opposition. In psychodynamic work, these moments are not viewed as obstacles but as valuable opportunities to understand how past experiences are being re-enacted in the present.
Impression, Sunrise, Painting by Claude Monet, 1874
Through a consistent and attuned therapeutic process, patients are supported in developing greater awareness of the emotions and meanings underlying their antagonistic responses. This involves gently linking present behaviours to past experiences, while also creating space for new ways of relating to emerge. As trust builds, patients may begin to tolerate vulnerability more comfortably, reducing the need to rely on defensive opposition. This shift often leads to improvements in emotional regulation, communication, and the ability to form more secure and satisfying relationships.
Ultimately, psychodynamic psychotherapy does not seek to eliminate antagonism, but to understand and transform it. When approached with curiosity rather than judgement, antagonistic patterns can reveal important insights into a patient’s internal world. Patients can then move toward self-understanding and emotional freedom, allowing them to engage with others in ways that feel less constrained by past experiences through working through these patterns in a supportive therapeutic relationship.