Goethe lamented that “two souls, alas, do dwell within this breast; the one is ever parting from the other.”  We’ve probably all observed this inner conflict in ourselves and others: maybe we’ve been in a relationship where our lover’s affection was suddenly replaced by cold distance and abandonment; maybe we’ve bounced back and forth between an exhausting drive to achieve and a crippling lack of motivation; or maybe we’ve watched helplessly while a person we knew to be loving and gentle destroyed themselves and the people around them with rage or addiction.  A big part of my job as a therapist is to help people understand these confusing and sometimes overwhelming inner realities.