That Was Then, This is Now: An Introduction to Contemporary Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (Part 3)

Part 3 of 7: The mind in conflict.

Index

This work is in seven parts. Here are links to each section.

Part 1: Roots of misunderstanding
Part 2: Unconscious mental life
Part 3: The mind in conflict ◀
Part 4: The past lives on in the present
Part 5: Transference
Part 6: Defense
Part 7: Psychological causation

The mind in conflict

Another central recognition is that humans can be of two (or more) minds about things. We can have loving feelings and hateful feelings toward the same person, we can desire something and also fear it, and we can desire things that are mutually contradictory. There is nothing mysterious in the recognition that people have complex and often contradictory feelings and motives. Poets, writers, and reflective people in general have always known this. Psychoanalysis has contributed a vocabulary with which to talk about inner contradiction, and techniques for working with contradictions in ways that can help alleviate suffering. To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, wisdom is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas in mind at the same time and still continue to function. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy seeks to cultivate this form of wisdom.