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This paper discusses the historical development of the concept of ambivalence. In 1910 Bleuler coined the term to mean static coexistence of different affects
on two levels of consciousness. In Freud's earlier writings ambivalence meant conflict between two polar opposing forces, the repressed instinct seeking discharge and the opposing repressing process. In Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920) Freud described ambivalence as based on the opposition between the life and death instincts. The failure of the proper fusion of the two drives, or the defusion which occurs in regression, causes the tension between aggression and libido that leads to the clinical manifestation of ambivalence.