This article deals with a double idea: Metaphor itself, by bridging two domains of experience, lives in the tension, even contradictoriness, of what it brings together, and in that way may be uniquely suited to present a theory of mental life that centers on inner polarities and antitheses, i.e., inner conflict in a wide sense, not necessarily bound to the drive or structural metaphors. In turn, the concept of conflict itself entails a spectrum of warlike or violent metaphors, such as defense, antitheses, clashing values or forces, being torn or broken apart, inner part personalities fighting with each other, etc. The history of the metaphors for various forms of inner conflict are traced back in Western and Eastern literature (Homer, Plato, the Bible, the Talmud, St. Augustine, Confucius, and Lao Tzu), thus broadening the search for a common ground for psychoanalytic perspectives.