Threatening strategies
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Cognitive and perceptual factors correspond to situations of high stress, when values and basic needs appear threatened, the opponent becomes the enemy.
LET'S SEE AN EXAMPLE
Description of the scene: Barbara and Oliver are meeting Barbara’s lawyer so as to decide which rights Barbara will have after the divorce. Barbara is willing to give up Oliver’s economic support, but not the home and all the furniture in it (Oliver’s basic needs are threatened). Now Oliver realizes that Barbara is not a simple opponent anymore, but an actual enemy. We understand he realizes this when he states the following: “if this is a who can sink the lowest fastest contest you won. (...) i may have let you have a house, but now you’ll never get it”.
The War of the Roses, D. DeVito, USA, 1989, 20th Century Fox (00:48:35 - 00:51:27).