ambivalencyn.
/amˈbɪvələnsi/, /amˈbɪvəln̩si/, /amˈbɪvl̩(ə)nsi/, U.S. /æmˈbɪv(ə)lənsi/ Chiefly Psychoanalysis and Psychology. Somewhat rare.
The coexistence in one person of profoundly opposing emotions, beliefs, or attitudes (such as love and hate, or attraction and repulsion) towards a person or thing; (also more generally) the state of having contradictory or mixed feelings or attitudes; the state of being contradictory. Cf. ambivalence n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > equivocal quality, ambiguity > [noun]
ambiguitya1325
doublenessa1513
ambiguousness1542
double meaning1551
indifferency1596
equivocacy1646
equivocalness1647
ambilogy1656
greyness1663
mealy-mouthedness1697
amphilogy1731
equivocality1735
grey1822
double-edgedness1901
ambivalence1912
ambivalency1912
1912 W. A. White tr. E. Bleuler Theory Schizophrenic Negativism 1 Ambivalency [Ger. Ambivalenz], which gives to the same idea two feeling tones and invests the same thought simultaneously with both a positive and a negative character.
1955 Jrnl. Mental Sci. 101 575 This ambivalency indicates a conflict which has been repressed but, under the stress of an illness or cerebral degenerative process, threatens to break through to consciousness.
1988 MLN 103 85 Could the ambivalency of Spenser's response to Ariosto be more pronounced?
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2020; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1912