The classical/relational schism and psychic conflict

The mind's ingrained need to reduce and resolve conflicting perspectives, it is argued, is at the root of struggles among "schools" of analytic thought. Focusing attention on the conflictual process in analytic work can help both patients and analysts appreciate the fundamentally complementary nature of mind and the value of embracing distinctive points of view.     

The components of psychic conflict and its consequences in mental life.

This paper surveys current psychoanalytic concepts of drives, unpleasure related to drives, defense and compromise formation, with special attention to the author's contributions to each subject during the years 1950-1978.     

Depressive affect, anxiety, and psychic conflict in the phallic-oedipal phase.

The author's recent contributions to affect theory and its relation to psychic conflict are applied to the understanding of the nature, genesis, and consequences of psychic conflict in the phallic-oedipal phase. These contributions lead to a better understanding of 1) the importance of depressive affect in phallic-oedipal conflicts, 2) similarities and differences between such conflicts in boys and girls, 3) depression as a symptom in adult life, and 4) some aspects of narcissism.     

Paradoxical frames and creative sparks: Enhancing individual creativity through conflict and integration

Across industries, organizations operate in increasingly complex and uncertain environments. To succeed in such environments, organizations require their members to think creatively and integrate conflicting demands. We propose that the adoption of paradoxical frames—mental templates that encourage individuals to recognize and embrace contradictions—increases creativity. In four laboratory studies using different creativity tasks and different manipulations for eliciting paradoxical frames, participants who adopted paradoxical frames were more creative than their counterparts who did not. Our results suggest that the positive influence of paradoxical frames on creativity is due to the paradoxical relationship between task elements and not merely to their joint activation. This paradoxical relationship creates a sense of conflict in individuals and enhances their ability to integrate contradictions, which in turn increases creativity.     

Some reflections on the use and meaning of conflict in contemporary psychoanalysis

The author reflects on the concept of conflict in contemporary psychoanalysis, and especially in European psychoanalysis. In the latter, this concept does not seem to have aroused significant interest. This does not necessarily mean that conflict has been rejected or replaced; rather, there has been a greater focus on preconflictual stages of development. Indeed, conflict is generally implicit in psychoanalytic work, and, like many other concepts, it has very different and at times divergent meanings, both in various psychoanalytic schools of thought and within the same school. The author presents a clinical example to illustrate some of the possible choices of the analyst at work concerning the use of the concept of conflict.     

Mental set and creative thought in social conflict: threat rigidity versus motivated focus

According to the traditional threat-rigidity reasoning, people in social conflict will be less flexible, less creative, more narrow-minded, and more rigid in their thinking when they adopt a conflict rather than a cooperation mental set. The authors propose and test an alternative, motivated focus account that better fits existing evidence. The authors report experimental results inconsistent with a threat-rigidity account, but supporting the idea that people focus their cognitive resources on conflict-related material more when in a conflict rather than a cooperation mental set: Disputants with a conflict (cooperation) set have broader (smaller) and more (less) inclusive cognitive categories when the domain of thought is (un)related to conflict (Experiment 1a-1b). Furthermore, they generate more, and more original competition tactics (Experiments 2-4), especially when they have low rather than high need for cognitive closure. Implications for conflict theory, for motivated information processing, and creativity research are discussed.     

A dialog of faith: reflections on Middle East conflict from Jewish,Muslim and Christian perspectives

In 2004, Santa Clara University's Bannan Center for Jesuit Education brought together online religious teachers and practitioners from the three world religions to discuss important issues associated with Middle East conflict: resistance, suicide bombing, America's role in the Middle East, and the future shape of peace. These conversations aimed at helping all parties better understand one another's concerns, values and commitment to peace. Our participants replied to a series of questions, and then questioned each other's replies, while students in Europe, North America and the Middle East observed the exchange. This article describes the project, summarizes the results and invites readers to consider carefully the participants' views.     

Structural conflict and object relations conflict.

A hierarchical model of the mind is required for a more integrated understanding of psychic conflict. At a higher developmental level, the hierarchical model includes the tripartite model, and at a lower level it includes an object-relations model. Psychic conflicts may be classified into object relations conflicts and structural conflicts. The object-relations class of psychic conflict covers the phase of psychic development prior to id-ego-superego differentiation. The earlier psychoanalytic writings tended to ascribe all kinds of symptoms, conflicts, and disorders to structural conflicts. Logical and empirical evidence against the universality of structural conflicts in various disorders and symptoms, even psychoneurotic symptoms, has been summarized and discussed.     

Some reflections on boredom.

Boredom is a complex mental phenomenon, incorporating both affective and cognitive components, which cannot be understood within the confines of conflict theory alone. The paucity of fantasy in the bored person may reflect a developmental ego defect as well as, or instead of, the commonly-cited impulse-defense conflicts. The need for externally-supplied stimulation characteristic of persons with a field-dependent cognitive style, and/or characterological passivity may be among the significant predisposing factors for the development of boredom, and phase-specific factors may encourage its occurrence at particular periods of life. Boredom in the analyst, too, is multiply determined; the analytic situation itself contains features that contribute to it.     

Alcohol and creative writing.

A repeated-measures design was used to test for the effects of alcohol on creative writing as measured by use of novel figurative language. 11 male social drinkers participated in a creative writing task under two conditions, alcohol (high dose: 1.1 ml. ethanol/kilogram body weight) and placebo. In the alcohol condition, within-subject comparisons indicated significantly greater quantity of creative writing while intoxicated. These results were interpreted as supporting the belief that alcohol can reduce "writer's block," at least amongst nonalcoholic subjects.