ambivalence /ambiv″ələns/ [L, ambo, both, valentia, strength] , 1. a state in which a person concomitantly experiences conflicting feelings, attitudes, drives, desires, or emotions, such as love and hate, tenderness and cruelty, pleasure and pain toward the same person, place, object, or situation. In some situations, ambivalence is normal. Treatment in severe, debilitating cases consists of psychotherapy appropriate to the underlying cause. 2. uncertainty and fluctuation caused by an inability to make a choice between opposites. 3. a continuous oscillation or fluctuation. −ambivalent, adj.
