The History of Inner Conflict, in Legend and Lore, Fiction and
Film, Has Fascinated, Captivated, and Terrified Us for Centuries

Inner conflict—or more accurately, intrapersonal conflict, defined as conflict solely occurring within the mind of an individual—has been storied by Robert Louis Stevenson in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Carl Jung in his concept of the animus and anima within each of us, and by modern neuroscientists in their revelations of the dominant and sub-dominant hemispheres of the brain.

But today, the story of intrapersonal conflict is much more personal and immediate for the many millions who suffer with it right now, and the many more millions who live and work with them.

In my 20+ year career as an executive coach working with nearly 4,000 clients, I have learned that intrapersonal conflict is a deeply held secret by those who suffer with it. More times than I could ever count my clients have told me that, until working with me, they had never discussed their inner conflict with anyone, not even their spouse.

There are a number of reasons for keeping their torment secret. Among them are the fact they feel all alone—that no one else has what they have, that their inner behavior deeply confuses them and that must mean they are somehow flawed, that they feel no one could ever understand, they don’t even understand and revealing it would be a humiliation, and that nothing could ever be done about it anyway. These reasons keep the true endemic incidence of intrapersonal conflict and the damage it causes to individuals and those close to them far off the radar screen of public awareness.

I have also learned time and again, there is absolutely something that can be done about inner conflict—a breakthrough these clients never sought out because they never knew it even existed—in a phrase, inner reconciliation and integration.

My mission in this chapter of my career is to blow the lid on that secrecy and reveal what I have learned. With a very high incidence rate—about one in three people live and suffer with intrapersonal conflict—my purpose is for more and more mental health practitioners to learn the signs of intrapersonal conflict in their clients, have at their disposal a deep understanding of how it works… and know how to help their clients effectively resolve it in just a few sessions.

Countless lives of family and friends, as well as their clients’ lives, will be bettered by it! I have a lot to share with you, and this web site is a good start.

If you are an NPL practitioner or mental health practitioner working with clients, I invite you to join me here. Here is what’s in it for you. In your practice, about one in three of your clients experience inner conflict. Identifying their inner conflict and working successfully with them in resolving it will take your practice to another level of effectiveness you’ll be pleased with.

Here is a preview of upcoming articles.

• This first one may be the most controversial. I have discovered that, if someone has unrecognized and deep intrapersonal conflict, no NLP technique will work permanently with them except one, and I’ll reveal what that one is. The same is true of most other non-NLP techniques. They will not work permanently until you address and help your client resolve their intrapersonal conflict. After resolving intrapersonal conflict, then, many of these techniques WILL work with beautiful results.
• This next one may be just as explosive. I’ve learned, and my clients have been positively awestruck by the fact neuroscience that’s been around since the mid-1960s completely explains their experience of intrapersonal conflict. This compelling evidence reveals that each half of the brain has its own independent and autonomous personality, and they can and do have conflicts with each other. I’ll reveal some of the exciting evidence for that and how that dramatically changes our view and understanding of intrapersonal conflict.
• I have amazing empirical evidence that Jung’s concept of the animus and anima—that a part of our psyche is masculine-oriented, and another part of our psyche is feminine-oriented—is more accurate than we ever imagined; that the left hemisphere of the brain is the seat of the animus, with more masculine-oriented traits, and the right hemisphere is the home of the anima, with more feminine-oriented traits. This evidence led me to the discovery of some surprising, unexpected, and profound benefits of resolving intrapersonal conflict.
• Entertainment personalities, through their interviews in print and on talk shows, through biographies and autobiographies, are a treasure trove of clues about intrapersonal conflict and its effect on their lives. Through examples (and to name a few: Mel Gibson, Sandra Bullock, Sarah Ferguson, Mike Tyson, and others), I’ll show you what to look and listen for to identify intrapersonal conflict. This kind of “armchair training” will help you more effectively, quickly, and accurately identify intrapersonal conflict in your clients.

I invite you to join me in sharing, learning about, and discussing intrapersonal conflict on this web site. I promise you it will be interesting.

—Mike Blackstone