Pros and Cons

Abstract

In retrospect, it seems rather simplistic to think of attitudes as always being unidimensional. After all, who hasn’t experienced “mixed feelings” about people, places, and things that we have encountered or visited in our lives. Take cars, for example. Talk to anyone who drives an older-model Jaguar and he or she will probably go on about the intrinsic beauty of its design, its stability taking corners, and especially the guttural resonance of that legendary double-overhead cam engine. It is equally likely, however, that the same individual will also recount the car’s finicky behavior, and its celebrated unreliability and high maintenance. In the end, most owners of an older Jag will say they both loved and hated the car. Asked to rate the car overall on a traditional bipolar continuum, they would find such a scale inadequate to describe their feelings for the beautiful but mischievous cat.

Ambivalence is a wonderful tune to dance to. It has a rhythm all its own.

Erica Jong