Deployment

Embattled, feeling victimized and entitled, many patients once again seek out help despite previous years of unsuccessful psychotherapy or analysis. Feeling frozen and unable to change and putting up a seemingly impenetrable wall of resistance, such patients are among the most difficult to reach. In this original work, Israeli psychologist Rena Moses-Hrushovski describes her therapeutic endeavors with such patients. She discovered in many such people a specific form of narcissistic character resistance which she terms deployment. Deployment is a vigilant use of the balances of interpersonal power designed to ward off intolerable feelings, predominantly of envy, shame, and guilt. Patients who use deployment put themselves in the role of the victim and then battle against perceived injustice, abuse, and oppression for the right to be understood and accepted. Such patients often expect the therapist to take responsibility for their suffering. In addition to exploring deployment as a kind of self organization, Dr. Moses-Hrushovski details her formulation of treatment approaches that enable her to build bridges to these patients and help them uncover and live with the feeling states that they are desperately trying to ward off.