Conflict, Frustration, And The Theory of Threat

Similar to frustration, there are two types of conflict situations: non-threatening and threatening. The former are quite unimportant, since ordinarily not pathogenic; the latter are important, because often pathogenic. The essential pathogenic characteristics of conflict and frustration are threat of thwarting of the basic needs of the organism, threat to its integrity, threat to its integration, and threat to its basic mastery of the world. The feeling of threat is in itself a dynamic stimulation to reactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)