Compromise Formation

Compromise formation is a psychoanalytic term. As you can probably guess, it deals with the mediator of conflict created by neuroses, between repressed wishes and defenses. If one applied Hegelian dialectic to the mind, it would be the synthesis of two opposing forces. It's like doing psychiatric grand rounds of the self. How far this algebra of the inner life is from a world in which affect is the lingua franca of discourse. Behavioral orientated clinicians say you can’t think your way into right acting (whatever that is ) but you can act your way into right thinking. To which the answer is yes until the old demons which have lurked between the prefrontal cortex and amygdala, the trolls lurking under the fairytale bridge of consciousness, come out of hibernation. Foreign Affairs is the name of s prominent journal of international relations. It could also be a wonderful personals column on a risqué site like Reddit. However the point is that the conflicts on the world stage often mirror the inner life. Another way to say this is that the collective unconscious of the human race is apparently still struggling with the notion of compromise.

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