When significant others turn into ambivalent others. An intersubjective-phenomenological perspective on the generation of internal conflicts.

Abstract

Internal conflicts are typically seen from an intrapersonal perspective in the literature, both as to how they are generated (e.g., by focusing on internal motives) and how they are to be solved (e.g., by emphasizing the therapeutic role of insight and cognitive processing). The present paper argues for an interpersonal perspective, where internal conflicts are seen to develop when the experience of significant others is transformed into an experience of ambivalent others. It is hypothesized that the inter-affective connection of the life worlds between a person and a significant other is of decisive importance in understanding the process of formation of the person’s internal conflict. In this model, which is based on an intersubjective phenomenological paradigm, the affective internal conflict of the self is understood as based on the phenomenological presence of the ambivalent other in the subject’s life world. It is argued that this model of internal conflicts can have theoretical and practical significance for psychological counseling and psychotherapy.