Ambivalence, << am BIHV uh luhns, >> is a psychiatric term for contradictory feelings or thoughts about one’s self, another person, or a situation. The most common ambivalent feelings include love and hate, acceptance and rejection, and dominance and submission.
Everyone experiences ambivalence. Most loving relationships include at least some hostile feelings, and most hostile relationships include at least some feelings of attraction. A person may recognize only one of the ambivalent feelings. The other, contradictory feeling may be unconscious even though it may strongly influence the individual’s behavior. Psychiatrists consider ambivalence a problem only when it characterizes most of a person’s relationships and weakens them or causes considerable personal distress.
