Working with internal conflicts in Gestalt therapy

This term has other meanings, see Conflict (meanings).

Conflict

(lat. conflictus - collided) - the most acute way of resolving contradictions in interests, goals, views that arise in the process of social interaction, which consists in the opposition of the participants in this interaction and is usually accompanied by negative emotions[1], going beyond the rules and norms.

Conflicts are the subject of study of the science of conflictology.

Signs of conflict

Bipolarity

Bipolarity, or opposition, represents opposition and at the same time interconnectedness, contains the internal potential of contradiction, but in itself does not mean a clash or struggle.

Activity

Activity is another sign of conflict, but only that activity that is synonymous with the concepts of “struggle” and “reaction”; activity is impossible without some impulse given by the awareness of the situation on the part of the subject of the conflict.

Subjects of the conflict

The presence of subjects of conflict is another sign; a subject is an active party capable of creating a conflict situation and influencing the course of the conflict depending on its interests. As a rule, subjects of conflict have a special type of thinking - conflict. Contradiction is a source of conflict situations only for subjects who carry a conflict type of thinking.[2]

Who is the impostor here?

Internal conflict often hinders a person’s development. Doubts about your worth as a professional greatly complicate career advancement. In the modern world, this is called “imposter syndrome.”

A person who experiences contradictions between the objective results of his activities and his internal sense of self cannot fully recognize his merits and enjoy his victories. Despite the recognition of those around him, he is constantly in doubt and believes that in fact he is “somehow different” and does not deserve high results.

Why is it so difficult to eradicate this impostor syndrome? Yes, because this is nothing more than a bouquet of several internal conflicts that are not so easy to resolve.

Tatyana F., transformational coach: “Now that I have established myself as an expert and am invited to speak at conferences and festivals, every time I think that this is some kind of mistake, I can’t handle it, that there is someone better than me.”

Types of conflicts

The nature of the conflict depends on the specifics of the opposing sides, as well as on the conditions in which their struggle unfolds.

The following types of conflicts are distinguished [ source not specified 881 days

By duration
, these types include the following subspecies:
Short-term
(for example: a regular quarrel)
One-time
(for example: the same ordinary quarrel)
Lingering
Repetitive
By volume:
Local
Regional
Group
Personal
By origin:
Subjective
False
By means used:
Nonviolent
By form:
External
conflicts are the interaction of opposites relating to different objects, for example, between society and nature, the organism and the environment, etc.
Antagonistic
conflicts are interactions between irreconcilably hostile social groups and forces. The term “antagonism” is common in biology and medicine: antagonism of poisons, drugs, microbes, antagonism of muscles, teeth, etc. Mathematicians consider antagonism as such an opposition of interests (meaning game theory), in which the gain of one side is equal to the loss of the other, that is, equality in magnitude and opposite in sign. In its pure form, antagonism rarely appears - in situations of market competition, war, revolution, sports competitions, etc.
By influence on the course of development of society:
Regressive
By the nature of development:
Spontaneous
In areas of public life:
Political
Ethnic
Family and household
Religious

Possible reasons

Considering what factors can influence the occurrence of intrapersonal conflict, we distinguish external and internal causes.

Internal factors are rooted in the contradiction of internal motives and needs. The more complex the structure of a person’s inner world, the more susceptible he is to introspection and internal conflict. Internal factors include:

contradiction between social norm and need,
contradictions of interests, motives and needs,
contradictory social roles,
inconsistency of social norms and values.

External factors in the development of intrapersonal conflict are determined by the position of an individual in a group of people, his position in the organization, and his place in society.

If the reasons are due to the position of a particular individual in the group, then the factors provoking the emergence of conflict are:

physical barriers that prevent the satisfaction of basic needs,
biological limitation - people with physical disabilities or mentally retarded individuals have obstacles in the body itself,
lack of an object that is necessary to satisfy needs,
social conditions.

Given the position of the individual at the organizational level, the following contradictions may occur:

between responsibility and lack of rights in order to realize it,
between poor working conditions, quality of task performance or strict deadlines,
between a critical task and poorly defined means of achieving it,
between the desire for self-affirmation, career, creativity and the opportunities to realize this, for example, people strive to achieve growth in the career ladder, but cannot do this due to the lack of necessary conditions, which is why intrapersonal conflict develops,
inconsistency between moral standards and the desire for profit, for example, a person works in a production facility that produces low-quality products,
between mutually exclusive tasks and requirements, for example, the need to improve product quality while the equipment remains the same,
incompatibility of social roles, for example, the status of a friend is subject to certain standards of behavior and requirements, and the status of a leader is subject to others,
between traditions and personal values, for example, working on weekends, frequent corporate events.

The reasons that are determined by the situation in society are associated with the inconsistency that is formed at the level of the social macrosystem.

Legal conflict

Legal conflict

- a situation in which two or more parties oppose each other, argue over legal rights and obligations. A legal conflict may arise over recognition, restoration, violation of legal rights, or failure to fulfill legal obligations.

Legal conflict is a type of social conflict. This means that in the emergence, development and even resolution of legal conflicts one can find traces of the action of the general laws of the origin, ripening and resolution of social conflict. A legal conflict can arise between individuals, the individual and society, the individual and the state, and society and the state. At the same time, a legal conflict, being an independent type of social conflict, cannot but have its own characteristics.

Further, a legal conflict is evident if there is a dispute over the scope or nature of legal rights, over claims to certain rights, over the redistribution of legal rights and obligations. An important characteristic of legal conflicts is the onset of legally significant consequences (the appearance or disappearance of legal rights, legal obligations of the parties, changes in their scope, etc.), as well as special forms and procedures for recording and resolving legal conflicts.

Adoption

The example with a cigarette will cause a storm of protest and misunderstanding: “Author, what about a healthy lifestyle? You’re calling for him...” Yes. Exactly. But in this case, the harm from cigarettes is less than from constant stress and destruction of self-esteem. If your goals are not in the field of sports or fitness, it is better to smoke quietly than to quit thousands of times. It is better to humble yourself and accept yourself than to hate, despise or constantly fight.

Inner freedom gives you 100% of your resources. At any time. But in order to come to her, you will have to play giveaway and cat and mouse with yourself.

The problem is that the example with the cigarette is obvious, and everyone has a huge field of struggle with themselves. Where is the best place to hide an item? In the most visible place! Most of our internal conflicts are hidden behind the screen of everyday routine and habits.

I propose to conduct simple experiments that open up the suppressed areas of the soul. Areas of internal conflicts.

Experiment No. 3

Take a piece of paper and divide it into 3 parts. In the first one put the number 14, in the second – 18, and in the third – 23. The essence of the experiment is to write down your dreams during the specified periods of time.

Warning! The action just looks careless. 50% of men 30–40 years old cannot clearly remember their dreams at all. Some general pictures and sensations. And then they wonder why they are in deep and hopeless ass.

Hugo remembered his dreams, Einstein and Rockefeller remembered. Naturally, over the years they change dramatically, but...

Overcome the usual chewing gum of the mind. Take a piece of paper.

Sometimes I think about how many seekers will spinelessly skim through the text. Not knowing what they are doing. Years will pass, and life will twist such a self-improver into a ram’s horn, and time will be bye bye. There is no strength, only tears of despair. I wasted my life, but I could have...

Take a piece of paper. Write!

Now that you remember, tell me – what came true? Or more precisely, has anything been realized? Were your dreams stupid? So in ten years you will consider your current ones to be the same. Do you want me to tell you why they didn’t materialize? Now we’ll write it down point by point.

Political conflict

This article may contain original research.

Add links to sources, otherwise it may be set for deletion. More information may be on the talk page. (25 May 2011)

Anti-constructive actions caused by differences in the interests of political groups (interest means the totality of interests of group members).

Political conflict is one of the possible options for interaction between political subjects. It can be defined as a type (and result) of competitive interaction between two or more parties (groups, states, individuals) challenging each other's power or resources. The concept of political conflict means the struggle of some subjects with others for influence in the system of political relations, access to making generally significant decisions, disposal of resources, monopoly of interests and recognition of them as socially necessary, for everything that constitutes power and political dominance. Conflicts, reflecting the rivalry of certain subjects (institutions) with some forces, as a rule, express their cooperation with others, stimulating the formation of political coalitions, alliances, and agreements. Thus, political conflicts presuppose a clear formulation of the positions of the forces participating in the political game, which has a beneficial effect on the rationalization and structuring of the entire political process.

The leading role in the emergence of conflicts is played, as recognized by conflict studies, by social factors. Among this type of determinants, there are three main reasons underlying political confrontations:

various forms and aspects of social relations that determine the discrepancy between the statuses of political subjects, their role assignments and functions, interests and needs for power, lack of resources, etc. These, relatively speaking, objective sources of political conflicts most often determine the contradictions between the ruling elite and the counter-elite , various pressure groups fighting for parts of the state budget, as well as between all other political subjects of the power system. The external orientation of such conflicts, as a rule, can be extinguished quite easily. However, it is possible to eradicate the sources of conflict disposition of the parties involved in various ways in the political struggle only through transformations, either changing the very organization of power in society, or reforming the socio-economic foundations of the political activities of competing subjects;
differences between people (their groups and associations) in basic values and political ideals, in assessments of historical and current events, as well as in other subjectively significant ideas about political phenomena. Such conflicts most often arise in those countries where qualitatively different opinions about ways to reform statehood collide, the foundations of a new political structure of society are being laid, and ways out of the social crisis are being sought. In resolving such conflicts, finding a compromise is often very difficult;
processes of identification of citizens, their awareness of their belonging to social, ethnic, religious and other communities and associations, which determines their understanding of their place in the social and political system. Conflicts of this kind are characteristic, first of all, of unstable societies, where people have to recognize themselves as citizens of a new state and get used to non-traditional norms of relationships with the authorities. The same contradictions arise in those countries where tensions in relations with the ruling structures cause people to defend the cultural integrity of their national, religious and similar groups.

Why do conflicts arise between people?

There are only 4 main, global causes of conflicts between people, because of which quarrels and other unpleasant situations constantly appear. All the reasons clearly express the inevitability of conflict situations (at the end of the article, we will tell you how to resolve them correctly).

Incorrect assessment of the surrounding reality

No matter what place, no matter what situation we are in, a person always evaluates the events that happen to him and reacts to them based on his own attitude , his worldview. Therefore, conflicts between people are so popular, because everyone “oppresses” his own line, guided only by his “I” .

Many, mistakenly, put their priorities , ideals, in the first place, forgetting about the opinion of another person, and forcing, ultimately, to do things, actions , active actions, in anything, everything, as it was intended by him, without considering , neither with the opinion , nor with the position of the other people who surround him.

There is a well-known phrase, “how many people, so many opinions,” it clearly reflects the whole essence, the whole individuality of a person, which tells us all that any person has the right to his opinion, to his own views and beliefs, however, for many , this is where it all ends, forgetting that along with “rights”, there are also “ responsibilities ”, since we are all born and raised in society, therefore we are obliged to think not only about our needs and wants, and to do everything as we want, but also take into account the opinions of both those around us and each person personally , of course, if we are in an environment where it is necessary to resolve issues together.

Conflict situations at work

Lack of mutual understanding between people

Our brains are unique, just like the papillary patterns on our fingers and toes. Everyone is born with different abilities , some draw or sew better, some inherited sports genes from their parents, while others are very lucky and inherited a brilliant brain . One way or another, all this distinguishes us by our abilities, but does not characterize a person as a person . Therefore, no abilities from birth or acquired can replace human relations with people.

Very, much depends, not on what a person has become, but how he became one, how he achieved universal respect , money, fame. So we gradually came to the understanding that a person is a social machine that can behave differently, in different situations, to achieve a certain goal .

Lack of mutual understanding in family relationships

The lack of mutual understanding between people is associated, first of all, with a completely different point of view on the world. People who seem to not know each other at all come to a common opinion in a matter of seconds , and all because their views on so many things coincide, a vivid example of this is the instant agreement between criminals that it is worth stealing a phone that is lying without supervision, - thieves instantly come to a common opinion that they need to steal, in turn, respectable citizen will never steal a phone, accordingly, being in the place of the second thief, he will never agree with the first that it is necessary to steal.

Let's take another example, where mutual understanding echoes the effect of the action of the “ crowd ” - the army, the presence of “hazing” has always been and will be, old-timers have both humiliated and continue to humiliate newly accepted recruits , and now imagine how another “spirit” “Grandfathers” in the army are sent for a pack of cigarettes, perhaps among the “grandfathers”, someone deep inside themselves believes that it is impossible to do this to a person, you cannot make him a “ slave ”, but the whole crowd unanimously sends the “spirit” for cigarettes, and the person drowns out his inner voice of “ justice ”, and also begins to force the “spirit” to run for cigarettes. In this example about the army, it is clearly shown how the crowd very quickly comes to a common understanding to achieve a common goal, regardless of the opinion of the recruit.

Crowd effect

Conflict and Dominance

Dominance is the oldest animal instinct that is present in any person. In society, the main dominant is a certain leader in the crowd who dictates to everyone how to act, how to behave, and they, in turn, begin to behave exactly as the dominant wants.

In family relationships, the struggle for dominance is a common thing, which often threatens marriage , the further continuation of relationships, and leads to conflict situations.

The animal instinct to be first, to be the best, to be the strongest , to do what you consider best for yourself, to dictate conditions to others, how and by what rules to live, the most valuable mechanism for survival, but only in a wild environment, and we live in society , therefore, you must always take it into account and suspend your “horses” so as not to aggravate relations with those around you.

Conflict and Dominance

Different views on life

In early childhood, brain connections , the child “absorbs” all the information that revolves around him, draws certain conclusions for himself, gradually forming himself as an individual , therefore, in the early stages of the baby’s development, it is very important for parents to monitor the company in which his child communicates. Such active, cognitive growth does not continue forever for a child , it ends around the age of 12-13 , and the second stage begins, adolescence, or the stage of identifying oneself as an individual, and here one’s own opinion and views on surrounding events begin to appear, therefore, if at the beginning of the child’s development you “missed” upbringing , then in the future it will be very difficult to correct, to guide the teenager on the right path of development if he himself is not aware of it.

Well, the final, initial stage of human development ends around the age of 17 to convince anyone of anything if a young boy (girl) does not agree with your opinion, without the involvement of a psychologist , psychiatrist, a neurologist, and so on, of course, one can argue with this fact, because any belief that a person has can be “pulled out” from the store of knowledge and replaced with another, but this is a completely different article.

So we gradually approached the age when views on life have already been completely formed, that is, the age at which it is actively necessary to interact with others, enter into family/work relationships , the age at which conflicts actively begin to develop, with different views on the surrounding world of reality .

Different views of people on the world around reality

For some, the norm is drunkenness , nicotine, indifference to the poor and animals, deception of people, betrayal, and other dirt that poisons the soul and body of a person. And imagine a person who needs to interact , at work, on a bus, metro, school, or other public place, solving common issues, ranging from giving up a seat on the bus to grandma, ending with who will go first to turn the “nut” in a factory, understandable the thing is, such people will never be friends , and at the first opportunity they will try to avoid each other, but that’s all, because they are completely different, values , and the life they lived, doing different things , it will also be absolutely different.

But life is not a predictable thing, you never know what will happen tomorrow , it can bring completely different people together and force them to mutually resolve issues, and, of course, such people will have a lot of conflict situations when solving common problems, so this is why It is important to learn how to interact with each other correctly, avoiding conflicts, disputes and fights.

Notes

A. Ya. Antsupov, A. I. Shipilov.
The meaning, subject and tasks of conflictology // Conflictology. - M.: UNITY, 1999. - P. 81. - 551 p. — 10,000 copies. — ISBN 5-238-00062-6.
↑ 1 2 A. Ya. Antsupov, A. I. Shipilov.
The structure of the conflict // Conflictology. - M.: UNITY, 1999. - P. 239. - 551 p. — 10,000 copies. — ISBN 5-238-00062-6.
Korostyleva N. N.
Man and woman. From conflict to harmony: A study of gender conflict genesis. M., 2005.

Wiktionary has an entry for
"conflict"
Wiktionary has an entry for
"quarrel"
Wiktionary has an entry for
"feud"

Literature

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Conflicts // Knowledge. Understanding. Skill. - 2005. - No. 2. - P. 179-182.
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Psychotherapy of family and sexual disharmonies. M.: Medicine, 1991.
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A., Kirillina V.N. Gender conflict: a system of concepts // Knowledge. Understanding. Skill. - 2005. - No. 1. - P. 86-101.
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