This implies the dynamic aspect of conflict arising out of these oppositions and points to their possible complementariness. Where conflict arises lies the possibility for change and transformation but when the differences between the hands are too great the inner conflicts can be devastating. The more similar the hands are, the less the conflict between the parents and between them and the person. This will convey the need to follow the road well-travelled of the parents and continue in the same pattern. It also points to repetitions of characteristics and behavior and for generational repetitions of problems.
Similarity can also be difficult at the stages of maturation, i.e., in childhood and adolescence.
The ability to assess parental images, influences and relationships in our own hands, provides a useful tool for the understanding of parent and also child bonding that continues to operate into our own adult lives. We can never run away from our parental images - they are within us. We can, however, learn to utilize differently and potentially transform their archetypal characteristics and patterns of behavior within us. It may be the first time that the person meets the parents as people with their own problems, pathologies and suffering. Just as frequently, the lived or unlived potentialities of the parental images can add to the understanding of a drive within the person.