When the therapist encouraged jeff to talk about his resentment toward his wife, jeff quickly changed the subject by telling a funny joke. to a psychoanalyst, jeff's behavior illustrates?

Resistance.

Explanation:

Resistance is a part of Psychoanalysis, a form of psychotherapy, that was developed by Sigmund Freud.

In psychotherapy, the term resistance is defined as the nature of a person to ignore the matters that oppose one's ego. It reflects the resistance of a client to grow or his unwillingness to change.

In the given scenario, Jeff's unwillingness to listen to discuss his resentment towards his wife is an example of resistance as he does not want to talk about it and to change the topic he started telling funny jokes to the therapist.

So, the correct answer is Resistance.