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On the day when the young man and his future wife became a couple, they met in the evening with some friends at an open-air celebration. He stood behind her, and during the three hours, inch by inch, they drew closer. When at some point their right index finger tips touched, it was clear to both that they are now a couple.

On that same evening, a few hours later, he had to leave for a few weeks, as the semester break had started and he had planned this with his parents. He felt this sudden separation from his new partner as a conflict-shock with loss of identity, as “through this separation I am no longer what I am”.

Since this was of course not sustainable for a new couple, he changed his plans and returned to her two days later. About an hour after they saw each other again, out of the blue, his fingetip started to hurt like hell (as if someone had hit him with a hammer) – especially when touched. Other than that there was nothing to see: no redness, no swelling.

He had this symptom only once in his life.

Since their partnership came about through the touch of fingertips, the separation was felt at this point. Depending on the nature of the separation sensation, different layers of the skin, the nerves or the periosteum are affected, which leads to different symptoms. Affected here were the sensory nerves that cause increasing deafness in conflict-active states, which will be noticeable only after a long period of time. After the conflict resolution, this sudden hypersensitivity is manifested in pain, especially on contact. Within about 2 days, the pain disappeared again, corresponding to the duration of the conflict-active phase.