the.com/ambivalence
the art of wanting two opposite things hard enough to want neither.
means the state of holding two conflicting feelings or attitudes about something at the same time, so that you're genuinely pulled in opposite directions.
from A coinage of early-20th-century psychology, built from Latin ambi- 'both' (the same 'both-handed' root behind 'ambidextrous') plus valentia 'strength, worth' (related to valere, 'to be strong,' the source of 'valiant' and 'value'). Literally 'both-strength' — two pulls of equal force. The Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler is credited with putting the term into circulation in the 1910s, and it spilled out of the clinic into everyday talk about the wars we wage inside ourselves.
- word origin
- Coined in 1910 by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler
- both, not neither
- It means simultaneous love and hate, not lukewarm apathy
- brain truth
- Conflicting desires light up separate neural reward circuits
- decision cost
- Strong ambivalence predicts slower, more agonized choices
- hidden strength
- Tolerating it correlates with creativity and better judgment
hamlet's indecision — shakespeare's protagonist delays avenging his father's murder throughout the play, torn between action and doubt
britain's brexit stance — uk population nearly split 52-48% in 2016 referendum, with persistent internal conflict over eu membership
oppenheimer on nuclear weapons — led manhattan project development of atomic bomb in 1945, later expressed deep moral regret about its creation