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 'expressing a state of inner tension...[or] caused by an unconscious conflict'.
For C. G. Jung, "emotional conflicts and the intervention of the unconscious are the classical features of...medical psychology". Equally, 'Freud's concept of emotional conflict as amplified by Anna Freud...Erikson and others are central in contemporary theories of mental disorder in children, particularly with respect to the development of psychoneurosis'.
