years of ambivalence:
Ambivalence is a state of conflicting emotions at the same time related to the same object, idea or person (for example, feeling both love and hatred for someone or something). The term is also commonly used to refer to situations where 'mixed feelings' of a more general sort are experienced or where a person feels uncertainty or indecisiveness concerning something.
In psychoanalytic terminology, however, a more refined definition applies: the term (introduced into the discipline by Bleuler in 1911), refers to an underlying emotional attitude in which the co-existing contradictory impulses (usually love and hate) derive from a common source and are thus held to be interdependent. Moreover, when the term is used in this psychoanalytic sense it would not usually be expected that the person embodying this 'ambivalence' would actually feel both of the two contradictory emotions as such: except in obsessional neurosis, which sees both sides being more or less 'balanced' in consciousness, one or other of the conflicting sides is usually repressed. (Thus, for example, an analysand's 'love' for his father might be quite consciously experienced and openly expressed - while his 'hate' for the same object might be heavily repressed and only indirectly expressed, and thus only revealed in analysis).
Another relevant distinction is that whereas the psychoanalytic notion of 'ambivalence' sees it as engendered by all neurotic conflict, a person's everyday 'mixed feelings' may easily be based on a quite realistic assessment of the imperfect nature of the thing being considered.
One common saying which entertains the young mind is "Me, ambivalent? Well yes and no."
The mighty continents divided
For a second time in all history
They found themselves just floating
Free from all responsibility
Without the weight of being whole
Some fruits evolved all on their own
But if you want something back
All the things that got cracked
When i felt like you lied to me
And all the million mistakes
And the kicks in the face
But i don't want you to die in me
So when you say what you want
That you need what you got
Don't forget to be kind to me
Now here's an apple with a tougher skin
While you've got your pretty scales and fins you say
See all the things that i can do
So perfectly my body grew but in
All the time you felt so free
Did you forget how much you once loved me
And if you want something back
All the things that got cracked
When i felt like you lied to me
And all the million mistakes
And the kicks in the face
But i don't want you to die in me
So when you say what you want
That you need what you got
Don't forget to be kind to me
I don't want you to die in me
~Mirah~
because i hate you as much as i love you.
In psychoanalytic terminology, however, a more refined definition applies: the term (introduced into the discipline by Bleuler in 1911), refers to an underlying emotional attitude in which the co-existing contradictory impulses (usually love and hate) derive from a common source and are thus held to be interdependent. Moreover, when the term is used in this psychoanalytic sense it would not usually be expected that the person embodying this 'ambivalence' would actually feel both of the two contradictory emotions as such: except in obsessional neurosis, which sees both sides being more or less 'balanced' in consciousness, one or other of the conflicting sides is usually repressed. (Thus, for example, an analysand's 'love' for his father might be quite consciously experienced and openly expressed - while his 'hate' for the same object might be heavily repressed and only indirectly expressed, and thus only revealed in analysis).
Another relevant distinction is that whereas the psychoanalytic notion of 'ambivalence' sees it as engendered by all neurotic conflict, a person's everyday 'mixed feelings' may easily be based on a quite realistic assessment of the imperfect nature of the thing being considered.
One common saying which entertains the young mind is "Me, ambivalent? Well yes and no."
The mighty continents divided
For a second time in all history
They found themselves just floating
Free from all responsibility
Without the weight of being whole
Some fruits evolved all on their own
But if you want something back
All the things that got cracked
When i felt like you lied to me
And all the million mistakes
And the kicks in the face
But i don't want you to die in me
So when you say what you want
That you need what you got
Don't forget to be kind to me
Now here's an apple with a tougher skin
While you've got your pretty scales and fins you say
See all the things that i can do
So perfectly my body grew but in
All the time you felt so free
Did you forget how much you once loved me
And if you want something back
All the things that got cracked
When i felt like you lied to me
And all the million mistakes
And the kicks in the face
But i don't want you to die in me
So when you say what you want
That you need what you got
Don't forget to be kind to me
I don't want you to die in me
~Mirah~
because i hate you as much as i love you.