Generally, negative feelings that one individual or group experience in reaction to another individual or group cause the individual or group experiencing the negative responses to separate themselves from the individual or group toward whom the negative feelings are experienced. However, certain negative responses that an individual or group may experience in relation to another individual or group can motivate the individual or group experiencing the negative reactions not to seek separation from the individual or group toward whom the negative feelings are experienced but, rather, to seek to associate with and to interact with the individual or group toward whom the negative responses are experienced.

Negative Responses That Bring About Efforts to Separate

If one individual or group -

• Poses a physical danger to and/or,
• Hinders the enjoyment of life of and/or,
• Causes guilt in and/or,
• Is aesthetically displeasing in some respect to

A second individual or group, then the natural response of the second individual or group is to separate from and to avoid contact with the first individual or group. Through this separation, the negative response experienced by the second individual or group in regard to the first is done away with.

Negative Responses That Bring About Efforts to Associate

However, as noted, there are negative reactions that an individual or group can experience in regard to another individual or group which compel the negatively responding individual or group not to seek separation from the individual or group toward whom negative responses are experienced but, rather, to seek association and interaction with the individual or group toward whom the negative responses are experienced. This can be the case when the negative feelings an individual or group has in relation to another individual or group is in the area of feelings of adequacy, self-image, and self-esteem.

Concering this, negative feelings of one individual or group to another individual or group in the area of sense of adequacy would involve the following:

• Feelings of inferiority to the other individual or group (perhaps not consciously recognized as feelings of inferiority),
• Likely feelings of offense because the individual or group relative to whom the feelings of inadequacy are experienced can well be seen as feeling superior, and
• Possible envy of the individual or group evoking the feelings of inadequacy.

Separation of the individual or group feeling inferior, etc from the individual or group relative to whom these feelings are experienced may not eliminate these feelings. Instead, the negative feelings may persist. This is because the individual or group experiencing the feelings of inferiority, etc. knows that the individual or group relative to whom they respond in this way exists with or without separation. Therefore, the feelings of inadequacy, etc. relative to this individual or group may exist or continue though there is separation. Too, as noted, if an individual or group experiences feelings of inferiority relative to another individual or group, they are likely to believe that this other individual or group feels superior to them. This is offensive. Separation from the individual or group seen as feeling superior may not alleviate these feelings of offense, and in fact, there may be a sense that separation allows the individual or group seen as feeling superior to get away with causing the feelings of offense stemming from the assumed feelings of superiority, as well as the negative responses in general.

In addition to these factors, it is generally believed that feelings of inferiority can be rectified and changed to feelings of equality or even to feelings of superiority by engaging in certain activities vis-a-vis the individual or group relative to whom feelings of inferiority are experienced. It is also generally believed that feelings of superiority on the part of others can be changed through these activities to feelings of equality or maybe to feelings of inferiority. These activities require the individual or group feeling inferior, etc. relative to another individual or group to associate with and to interact with the individual or group relative to whom the negative feelings are experienced.

An individual or group whose negative response to another individual or group is in the area of feelings of personal worth and self-esteem, in that this individual or group feels inferior, etc. to the other individual or group, is apt not to try to separate or stay separated from the individual or group relative to whom these negative feelings are experienced but, rather, to try to associate with the individual or group relative to whom these feelings are experienced in order to remedy these responses and to change these to feelings of equality or even to feelings of superiority.

Conclusion

When one individual or group responds negatively to another individual or group and this negative response is not in the area of adequacy and self-esteem, separation of the individual or group responding negatively from the other individual or group does away with these negative feelings. However, when an individual or group reacts negatively toward another individual or group in the area of adequacy and self-esteem, the individual or group reacting negatively is likely to seek to interact with the other individual or group in order to try to rectify these negative responses.