Territorial (Masculine) Conflict

A territorial conflict is a masculine temporal-lobe conflict concerning the claiming, securing, protecting, defending, or regaining of territory. Like separation and motor conflicts, it is rendered in the ectoderm and relayed through the cerebral cortex, specifically in the temporal lobes.

An individual creates a territorial conflict when he is concerned with his hold over a domain. Territory is, at root, a "secured" source of one's existence (and that of one's loved ones), which is why its loss or threat strikes so deep for the protective, fatherly masculine.

The same four temporal-lobe relays carry a feminine (belonging) conflict when the individual is in feminine hormone status (see Feminine (Belonging) Conflict) — but the territorial and feminine conflicts are not equal mirror images. Territory is decidedly masculine, and the feminine decidedly belongs within it; the container is the common ground both orient around, not a symmetry between them. This asymmetry is why a temporal-lobe conflict — whether about holding territory or about belonging within it — pushes hormone status toward masculinization or emasculation rather than leaving it untouched (and why these conflicts carry far greater biological weight for a male than for a female).

The masculine ("yang") aspect of an organism's psyche asserts, directs, claims, protects, judges, and organizes territory. The masculine holds.

(The feminine, or "yin" aspect of the psyche – sensing, feeling, discerning, receiving, and relating, especially sexually – is the territory. The feminine is held)

Territory is the perceived (in the psyche) spatial and social domain within and over which an organism has priority of access to resources, mates, and safety. The ability to claim, defend, inhabit, and preside over a territory is fundamental to sexual reproduction and survival of groups, not just in social animals, but in the vast majority of vertebrate species.

"Territory" may refer to literal space, social position, sexual access, authority, livelihood, family role, relational standing, or any other domain the psyche organizes as "mine to claim, care for, and protect."

Territory is that about which the masculine says, "This is mine," and then cherishes, provides for, and protects (even at the expense of life itself). Within the psyche, it is that which we hold as valuable and necessary for our life to have purpose and meaning.

The masculine then:

• sets goals,
• initiates,
• judges,
• leads,
• organizes, and
• takes action to correct

all in relation to sustaining and stabilizing the territory (and those within it).

Thus, the territory is both the "container" of the individual organism's "net worth," and that organism's legacy.

A territorial conflict has four possible aspects:

• Territorial fear – fear of loss of territory, due to slander, dishonesty, a more powerful competitor, etc. A territorial fear conflict will relay through either the bronchial relay on the right temporal lobe or the laryngeal relay on the left temporal lobe.
• Territorial loss – loss of access to property, income, a position of status, sexual partner(s), or any other concept that has been cherished, provided for, and protected. A territorial loss conflict will relay either to the coronary arteries and vas deferens through the right temporal lobe or to the coronary veins and uterine cervix through the left temporal lobe.
• Territorial anger – elements within the territory are creating disruption and must be expelled from the territory. Depending on laterality and the rule of weight, it relays either through the right temporal lobe — to the small curvature of the stomach, the bile ducts (gall-bladder, intrahepatic, and common ducts), or the pancreatic ducts — or through the left temporal lobe, to the rectal mucosa.
• Territorial demarcation – difficulty marking the boundaries of the territory, requiring constant reassertion of a part or aspect of the territory. A territorial demarcation conflict will relay to the left side of the urinary tract if it involves the right temporal lobe, or the right side of the urinary tract if it relays through the left temporal lobe.

Territorial conflicts are always experienced from masculine hormone status and the masculine principle of directive action. An individual organism only experiences territory when that individual is in masculine hormone status, meaning the level of testosterone within the brain is relatively greater than the level of estrogen.

A male is in masculine hormone status by default, and anyone in masculine hormone status is concerned with territory. All males who do not have active temporal lobe conflicts or any other endocrine-disrupting conditions (including andropause), will perceive and respond in relation to territory.

(A female only experiences a territorial conflict after shifting into masculine hormone status. She will immediately lose interest in territory if she resolves her temporal lobe conflicts)

Territorial conflicts are mediated by the temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex. Which temporal lobe relays the conflict depends on the individual's laterality and on whether a temporal lobe is already occupied (the rule of weight). The hormonal consequence follows the lobe, not the handedness: involvement of the left temporal lobe drops estrogen and masculinizes ("mania"); involvement of the right temporal lobe drops testosterone and emasculates ("depression").

For a first territorial conflict:

Individual	Temporal lobe	Hormone shift	Resulting tilt
Right-handed male (or right-handed female in masculine status)	Right	Testosterone drops	Passivity, withdrawal from territory ("depression")
Left-handed male (or left-handed female in masculine status)	Left	Estrogen drops	Heightened territorial aggression ("mania")

(A female enters masculine hormone status through pregnancy, nursing, menopause, endocrine-affecting substances, or changes in endocrine-producing organs. She also enters masculine hormone status with an active feminine (belonging) conflict involving her left temporal lobe. Once she enters masculine hormone status, she becomes concerned with territory and can have a territorial conflict)

Only a left-handed male (or a left-handed female in masculine hormone status) can experience a second temporal lobe conflict (while the first is still active) as a territorial conflict. A right-handed male (or a right-handed female in masculine hormone status) will shift into feminine hormone status with their first territorial conflict.

Any individual with two or more active temporal lobe conflicts will be perceiving and protecting territory if his or her testosterone level is relatively higher than his or her estrogen level. However, the individual with two or more active temporal lobe conflicts will be in schizophrenic constellation and will be, to one degree or another, experiencing psychosis, causing them to respond to territory in a more or less inaccurate, avoidant, or distorted way.

A female who resolves all her temporal lobe conflicts will immediately lose interest in territory.