Dialectical Materialism

Collaboration is dialectical materialism. You have your thesis and antithesis leading to a synthesis. Marx employed Hegel’s historical model in the creation of his revolutionary theory. But the idea of opposites attracting and interacting actually derives from elementary physics. A positively charged object will attract its opposite but two opposites repel each other. Couples in relationships are more successful when they complement each other with, for instance, two similarly driven people colliding as they seek to achieve their objectives. Hence, a partnership or collaboration is ofttimes strengthened using the bad cop good cop metaphor. In terms of sex, it is not necessary that the aggressive partner be classically male, anymore then there needs be a recessive female counterpart. In fact, one may note anecdotally that many great collaborations result from the switching of roles, even in say a corporate hierarchy, where an executive at the top may defer to the desires and wishes of those “under” him or her.

read the review of Francis Levy's The Kafka Studies Department on Booklist

and watch the trailer for Erotomania