The term 'active plasma resonance spectroscopy' denotes a class of diagnostic methods which employ the ability of plasmas to resonate on or near the plasma frequency. The basic idea dates back to the early days of discharge physics: a signal in the GHz range is coupled to the plasma via an electrical probe; the spectral response is recorded, and then evaluated with a mathematical model to obtain information on the electron density and other plasma parameters. In recent years, the concept has found renewed interest as a basis of industry compatible plasma diagnostics. This paper analyzes the diagnostic technique in terms of a general description based on functional analytic (or Hilbert Space) methods which hold for arbitrary probe geometries. It is shown that the response function of the plasma-probe system can be expressed as a matrix element of the resolvent of an appropriately defined dynamical operator. A specialization of the formalism to a symmetric probe design is given, as well as an interpretation in terms of a lumped circuit model consisting of series resonance circuits. We present ideas for an optimized probe design based on geometric and electrical symmetry. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd.