Types of Conflict Situations

Conflict remains ubiquitous in human affairs, arising between nations, religious groups, political parties and individuals. Beneath the infinite array of actual conflict situations, psychoanalysis identifies a small core of underlying processes. These unspoken "basic assumptions" powerfully influence the emotional tone of a group or organization, leaving distinct forms of conflict in their wake. Psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion identified three basic assumption patterns, each of which produces different types of conflict situations.

Dependency Conflicts

• A sense of shared dependency often appears in the early stages of group formation. Group members seem to hang on one member's every word, as if she holds all knowledge, wisdom and foresight. This "basic assumption of dependency" insidiously creates a resentful parent-child hierarchy in place of a healthy sense of mutual responsibility. It conflicts with a group's aim to collaborate on a particular task and can rapidly mutate into open disillusionment and hostility. At this point, the group seeks a new leader--but if the basic assumption remains unchallenged, whoever assumes the role will soon experience the same fate. The problem exists not with leadership, but with the impossible wish for an all-knowing master.

Fight-Flight Conflicts

• Groups under the sway of the "fight-flight" assumption become aggressively excited by positing an enemy outsider onto which they can focus all their bad feelings. A team can also project badness onto one of its own members, leading to "ganging up" activity. To function rationally, the group needs to accept responsibility for its emotional tendencies and work to counter their destructive effects.

  The negative characteristics attributed to the adversary, such as hostile intent, envious spoiling or greedy acquisitiveness, count among the qualities the group seeks to evade by expelling them onto a suitable scapegoat. A wish emerges for some form of battle or escape--a fight or flight. Unless the group can name, acknowledge and work through the tensions hidden by the fight-or-flight assumption, the group will find a new scapegoat as soon as an old one leaves.

Pairing Conflicts

• "Destructive hope" might sound contradictory, but one form of hope, which Bion called "messianic," becomes exceptionally corrosive. It occurs when a group begins to act as though a pair of its members will produce some form of miraculous breakthrough. Ordinary but important problem-solving ideas often get dismissed when the basic assumption of pairing pulls the strings behind the scenes. The genuinely collaborative work of the group will be sabotaged, largely because the group ignores modest but valuable contributions, replacing a sense of shared struggle with a fantasy of forthcoming utopia. As frequently happens with idealization, envy invariably simmers beneath veneration, threatening to spill over into derogatory remarks or open animosity. Where realistic optimism entertains achievable possibilities, pathological hope seethes with suppressed hostility.