Judith
>
>
>Conflicts:
>Giga's cognitive conflicts about his assumptions
>Conflict between play frame and discussion frame
>Power conflict between Giga and his mother
>Conflict within the play frame between assumed rules (boys pick their
>noses) and proposed rules (a girl may pick her nose).
>
>What do we (adult psychologists) call "conflicts"? It seems that this
>category is too broad. The example above is in an overall pleasant and
>loving situation and yet it contains "tensions". Can this be compared to
>the examples Yrjo Engestrom quoted from P. Hoeg's autobiographical novel?
>Conflicts which are described there are existential conflicts, not "merely"
>cognitive or emotional.
>
>>Yesterday, Giga and I played in the following way. I suggested that I be
>>his daughter and he my father. He agreed. I cuddled with him a little bit,
>>and he was kissing me. At one moment I put a finger in my nose to pick it
>>and I stared daringly at Giga (the "father"). He said:
>>
>>G: "Oh, you are my son, then!"
>>M: "No, I am your daughter, your little girl!"
>>G: (seriously) "But girls don't pick their noses!"
>>M: (seriously) "How do you know they don't?"
>>G: "I never saw it."
>>M: "What do you think, if you didn't see something, it doesn't exist?"
>>G: (after some thought) "Then, I am getting out of that city."
>>M: "Which city?"
>>G: "The Nosepick City." (He is laughing on that)
>>M: "You are getting out of the Nosepick City?"
>>G: (laughing) "Yes!"
>>M: "Is that a city where everybody picks their noses?, so it's name is
>> Nosepick City?"
>>G: (laughing) "Yes."
>>A: "Even the adults?"
>>G: (this time really astonished and shaking his head): "NO! Only children
>> pick their noses!"
>>
>>There was no more playing "Father and Daughter" at that point.
>>
>>
Judith Diamondstone
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