Ambivalence and Ambiguity:the Backg round Literature 193

E. Bleuler introduced the term ambivalence to characterise one of the fundamental symptoms of schizophrenia. Since then, it has been readily adopted by psychiatry, ¹⁹⁴ psychology and psychoanalysis. However, in spite of the time elapsed since then, the term was not completely clarified in the literature, and studies aimed at clearing up its meaning and scope are infrequent.