There are different levels and types of conflict. Psychological conflict – conflict that occurs within a person’s mind – can be the most realistic and intellectually stimulating. Who has not felt pulled in two different ways when making a decision? Sometimes the conflict is between what we know we should do vs. what we want to do; sometimes it’s between helping someone and helping ourselves. Often it is between giving in to difficulties and obstacles vs. persevering and conquering our weaknesses.
Describe and explore a psychological conflict from a movie, book, or personal life.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I don't exactly agree with the notion that inner conflicts can be about what we know we should do vs. what we want to do. I see it just as what we can live with doing. See, if you and your friend have a crush on the same person, could you live with giving up someone that would make you happy and someone that makes your heart flutter and put you through so much torment in the first place? Or would you rather live with lying to your friend and telling them to go for it while you step aside? Because you want to be a good friend, but then also want a chance with this guy of your dreams, you must wonder about whether you want to fight with yourself or with your friend. Outsiders might say that you should talk to your friend about it, but then there becomes even more problems and so comes more conflict with whoever else it comes to then affect. Sometimes even shame is placed on you for having those feelings in the first place.
People are completely open to disagree with me, or just simply ignore me, but I would like to hear others' thoughts on the matter. I could be making more of a fuss than I should, but let me know if I make any sense first :)
Psychological conflict is mainly influenced by a person's emotions. This concept is displayed through a multitude of novels and movies, and can be found in our own personal experiences. One example of this understanding is found in the book Handle With Care. The novel follows the point of view of 4 main characters through a wrongful birth lawsuit that causes a mother of a child with osteogenesis imperfecta to admit she never wanted her child to be born. Mother Charlotte O'Keefe seems to be selfish, but as the novel progresses we learn that her reasons for the lawsuit are much more complex than simply for money. Her love is so strong for Willow that she decides to betray her best friend and risk the family's secured life in order to ensure that Willow's life will be fulfilled with hundreds of opportunities the family could never provide with her husband's salary.
As the novel continues, Charlotte faces a challenging decision. The lawsuit is destroying her life and all she wants is for everything to return to normal. Her marriage is deteriorating, her best friend despises her, and her eldest daughter is discovered to have cut herself as well as suffering from bulimia. On top of all the chaos, Willow is still suffering from accident after accident; broken bone after broken bone. Charlotte can either drop the lawsuit and attempt to repair the damages, or continue and, although the lawsuit destroy what's left of her, stick with it in order to ensure Willow a bright future.
In the end, the psychological conflict of giving in to difficulties and obstacles vs. persevering and conquering our weaknesses leads to Charlotte persevering. This proves to be an honorable decision since Charlotte wins the case and makes amends. Although at the time she was viewed as a cruel, greedy woman she is able to push past these judgments and establish a promising future for Willow. She is also able to restore her marriage in addition to saving Amelia's (her eldest daughter)life. In contrast, it can be viewed as a poor decision since it cost Charlotte her friendship and may have scarred Willow with the fact that her mother doesn't love her (although she was assured otherwise). In summation, psychological conflict is discovered in entertainment and everyday life alike, and presents itself to be a challenging thing to concur.
I have to agree with emma in her post. To use another example,if you have a crush on someone who is your friend, and they like someone else, then you are really being hit with a barrage of emotions. One part of you wants the person to like you back, although you know in the deepest part of your heart that they like someone and they dont think of you that way. Its hard knowing that this person is only there for you as a friend, but as someone to have a relationship beyond friends is practically nil at this point. The psychological trauma this place both on you and your friend can be hard to handle. You want them to be happy with the person that they like, but a part of you wants to be selfish and go for it. It makes you wonder which is more important to you, your now painful, awkward relationship, or their chance at happiness and kudos for being a good friend to them, plus maybe another chance someday. Would you rather have your relationship grow stronger by your willingness to let go? Or have grow more strained over time as you possibly even sabotoge the one that you like and the one they like? This kind of sounds like a given, but others might have a completely different outlook on the matter.
I believe that internal conflict can be by far the most thought provoking of all conflicts. I also agree that it goes beyond the scope of categorization into morals vs. temptation, or selfishness vs. selflessness. Sometimes it can be put into man vs. society. This can be found in the novel The Catcher in the Rye. The main character, Holden Caulfield, has a particular view on society, and a split one at that -most internal conflicts have the character split between two subjects, as is the case in The Catcher in the Rye-. He wishes to be part of society on an adult level, while he also finds the world very 'phony' and 'corny' along with everyone else in it except for his littlest sister, Phoebe.
There is another internal conflict in Holden's mind and that is his sense of responsibility towards his sister Phoebe. He wants to keep all sin as far away from her as possible, in contradiction to everything else he does in the story. These feelings are shown when he goes to Phoebe's school and finds on the bathroom wall the F word. This makes him angry and thinks about what would happen if Phoebe saw it and immediately tries to smudge it out. Later Holden learns that he cannot be the catcher in the rye, that he cannot save the innocence from the fallen to innocence.
-Physiological conflicts are in many ways the most mentally trying of conflicts. They bring up some of the hardest questions to answer, and sometimes no decision has a favorable outcome. It is in these instances that the true character of a person is revealed. The highest tier of physiological conflicts are the ones that challenge the very roots of your morals and make you really evaluate what you want your life to stand for. These types of conflicts can easily fit into the general categories of the right path vs. the simple one, or facilitating ourselves vs. assisting others. Although these do cover everything, I feel that one extra, more specific category deserves to be mentioned. This is a situation in which doing the right thing yields unfavorable rewards, whilst doing the simple task generates the favor of society, but in turn injures the very people from which the praise is generated.
________________________________
-Such an instance occurs in the novel Tyrant. In this tale, the main character Dionysius is forced to become a Tyrant to protect the people of Syracuse. He started off in the favor of the public. He was a courageous hero of war, and he quickly ascended through the ranks of the army. Although he loved his country, he soon realized that the rulers were making the easy choices, the ones that made them loved. However their choice was secretly costing many men their lives and ruining those of others. Dionysius vowed he would be better than them, and that he would lead Syracuse to become one of the most powerful nations in the world. He tried to lead a peaceful revolt, but when the rulers dubbed him a traitor, he lost the favor of the public. He was forced to stage a coup d’état with those that held allegiance to him. Although the coup was successful, the public viewed him as a tyrant, and he became a hated man. He didn’t let that stop him. Dionysius continued to make the hardest choices, giving Syracuse what they needed, not what they wanted. Although he did so much for his country and brought it so far, he was deemed an evil man by the forever condemning words of history. This novel showed that sometimes people have to sacrifice everything to help what they love, and that sometimes those that cause the most damage are the ones that receive the most praise.
In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll had a Psychological conflict. He has two sides: good and bad, and he didn't want his bad side to take over him. To solve this problem he separated his good and bad sides so he didn't have to deal with a psychological conflict.
By creating Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll would never have to think whether or not he was doing the right thing, he could do whatever he wanted. Dr. Jekyll was trying to make sure he never ran into a psychological conflict between his good side and bad side. Eventually, Dr. Jekyll had to deal with more than a problem between him, now he had a conflict with the police. Mr. Hyde had killed a man.
Sometimes psychological conflicts won't be that intense, but everyone deals with a psychological conflict everyday. Whether it's debating to do your homework today or tomorrow or sneaking out of the house when you’re not supposed to. We all deal with one conflict or another.
There are many types of conflict. There are pysical, and psycological conflict. Both usually show up in books or short stories. However, I think psycological conflict is the most important type of conflict. The conflict that goes on in a person's head shows the changes he/she is going through. It helps develop the plot in the story, and gives the plot more meaning. Also it helps people connect to the story they are reading. Many people have gone through psycological conflict, and know what the character is going through. It allows the reader to sympathize with the character.
There have been many times where I have had internal psycological conflict. I knew that one thing was the right thing, but wanted to do something else instead. I think that all people have had this type of conflict. When we do, it tests our character and how we deal with things. Conflict is human nature. Nobody is perfect and has no decisions to make. Everyone wants to do something that they know they shouldn't do and have to decide between right and wrong. Psycological conflict is something everyone experiences.
Psychological conflict is much different than other kinds of conflict because it is man vs. himself; it is an internal conflict. Psychological conflict is harder to portray in a movie or book than other conflicts since a character is having the problem in his/her mind. In the book 'My Sister's Keeper' by Jodie Picoult, the main character, Anna, experiences a psychological conflict throughout the novel. Her sister, Kate, has leukemia and since Anna was born she has had to donate genetic material to Kate to keep her alive. When Anna turns thirteen her parents expect her to donate a kidney to her sister but she goes behind their backs and hires a lawyer to sue them for rights to her own body. Anna knows that the right thing to do is comply with her parent's wishes and donate her kidney, but she is fed up with going through painful surgeries and she knows it will never end. Picoult does a great job throughout the story showing Anna's psychological conflict by writing every few chapters in Anna's point of view.
Post a Comment