ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two different strategies of what Dixon might term therapeutic transformation but which people shall term personal transformation. The first of these is reconciliation, which draws its inspiration mainly from religious peace traditions and which seems to require the capacity to seek and to grant forgiveness in the pursuit of a higher synthesis in interpersonal relations. It also seems to expect that individuals will transcend their own selfish and non-spiritual needs to reach this new level. The second approach, however, uses selfishness as the key motive for change to interpersonal relations. Another feature of super ordinate goals when compared to reconciliation goals is that they were conceptualized in the context of inter-group conflicts, and therefore have a particular aptness for the study of inter-communal conflict transformation. Despite the rather narrow cultural milieu within which Sherif worked, this hypothesis has led some to view super ordinate goals as a vital strategy for transforming all sorts of inter-group conflict.
