Emotional conflict is the presence of different and opposing emotions relating to a situation that has recently taken place or is in the process of being unfolded. They may be accompanied at times by a physical discomfort, especially when a functional disturbance has become associated with an emotional conflict in childhood, and in particular by tension headaches[medical citation needed] "expressing a state of inner tension...[or] caused by an unconscious conflict".[1]
For C. G. Jung, "emotional conflicts and the intervention of the unconscious are the classical features of...medical psychology".[2] Equally, "Freud's concept of emotional conflict as amplified by Anna Freud...Erikson and others is central in contemporary theories of mental disorder in children, particularly with respect to the development of psychoneurosis".[3]