A conceptual tool for explaining the interpersonal dynamics at play when helping people change is offered: intrapersonal and interpersonal triangles. Starting with the simplest triangle of insight—the “Triangle of Mental Life”—the reader is led through the Triangle of Conflict and Triangle of Relationships. First, Triangle of Mental Life illustrates how thoughts/cognition, feelings/affect, and behaviors are interconnected and shape our experiences and reactions. Second, the Triangle of Conflict illustrates the tension between our desires and the imagined consequences of fulfilling them: i.e., we may desire something (impulses/feelings), unacceptable desires stimulate fear (anxiety/conflict), and defensive reactions result (defensive/maladaptive behavior). Finally, the Triangle of Relationships shows the underlying role of transferential relationships, providing a structure for assessing patterns of response, pointing out similarities between past relationships, and demonstrating present interactions. A group-coaching case study of a CEO with anger issues is explored throughout to illustrate how the insights derived from the triangles can be applied within a psychodynamic-systemic approach to exert pressure from several fronts—affect/emotional restructuring, defense restructuring, and self-perception restructuring—upon a person embarking on the change process. These interwoven forces make up the core of a person’s personality and must therefore be dealt with in order to drive personal change.

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The Three Mental Triangles

  • Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

摘要

A conceptual tool for explaining the interpersonal dynamics at play when helping people change is offered: intrapersonal and interpersonal triangles. Starting with the simplest triangle of insight—the “Triangle of Mental Life”—the reader is led through the Triangle of Conflict and Triangle of Relationships. First, Triangle of Mental Life illustrates how thoughts/cognition, feelings/affect, and behaviors are interconnected and shape our experiences and reactions. Second, the Triangle of Conflict illustrates the tension between our desires and the imagined consequences of fulfilling them: i.e., we may desire something (impulses/feelings), unacceptable desires stimulate fear (anxiety/conflict), and defensive reactions result (defensive/maladaptive behavior). Finally, the Triangle of Relationships shows the underlying role of transferential relationships, providing a structure for assessing patterns of response, pointing out similarities between past relationships, and demonstrating present interactions. A group-coaching case study of a CEO with anger issues is explored throughout to illustrate how the insights derived from the triangles can be applied within a psychodynamic-systemic approach to exert pressure from several fronts—affect/emotional restructuring, defense restructuring, and self-perception restructuring—upon a person embarking on the change process. These interwoven forces make up the core of a person’s personality and must therefore be dealt with in order to drive personal change.