Conflict and defensive reactions Miriam Leon

Reflection Paper on Emotions In everyday life everyone will go through a constant change of emotions. Usually changes in emotions are from a sort of conflict. It can be a drastic conflict or just a small one. How they react to those conflicts varies from person to person. That is why in this essay I will be discussing types of defenses used during a conflict and a basic conflict management process. For example, I remember once reading this women’s story asking for advice. What had happened was that the women was in a hospital bed drowsy from anesthesia after having a complete hysterectomy. She had been sick for 3 years, and when she woke up her and her husband talked. He told her out of the blue that people at work kept asking him if she dies is he then going to marry Annette. She was hurting so much because of that, her heart ached and she couldn’t think clearly. She suspected that Earl and Annette were having an emotional affair, but was shocked that they would be planning marriage when she was on the brink of death. Earl and she had been married for 13 years, and up until her illness she had thought that they had a pretty strong relationship. So apparently, Earl and Annette had worked together for years. In matter of fact Earl and she would hang out with Annette and her husband at all the company functions and other events. Then Annette’s husband died suddenly. She felt sad and empathetic and befriended her. Annette would come to their house for holidays and such. Then she became very ill, and then that’s what she believes was the beginning of this very strong emotional bond that developed between them. Earl began leaning on Annette for support. It is interesting to note that even at the very beginning his co-workers seen the strong emotional affair they were having. Then a few weeks after surgery a friend had asked her if she could watch her two boys for her, but she said no cause she didn’t want to watch four children; including her two. Earl chimed in,