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I just went back and read others’ comments and wanted to make a small addition to my own.

Sometimes we experience conflict at the level of tacit knowledge that may manifest itself in ways of which we are not aware. It is often, only when the conflict inserts itself into our lives in such a way as to be undeniable that we are able to address the conflict, even if it was affecting us without our knowledge. And so, that thing, that product of our unconscious enters the realm of the storyteller and its existence is harder to deny. It is at this point that I think conflict becomes useful. I do not think that everyone should suffer, that conflict is “good” or even that everyone should see conflict as useful. However, there are ways in which conflict can be the first building block in a personal renovation, a personal actualization. I think medicine invests a lot of time fighting against the body, the mind, rather than working with it. I see no inherent “value” in mental conflict. However, I see a possibility of change for the better, of working with a particular mental state to untangle a story, refine it, and move on with a story that is more useful. My reference to medicine “fighting against” the body is not an argument for the acceptance of depression, of schizophrenia, or of anything else. On the contrary, it is an argument for working with the individual based upon that person’s strengths and difficulties, rather than imposing a rigid, inflexible standard of “normal,” a category into which not every body, not every mind will ever fit. To the extent that we are not aware of the ways in which our choices, our experiences, our existences shape tacit knoweldge, "symptoms" whether a caffeine-induced headache, or a pervasive sense of sadness whose genesis is unknown can be a "signal" that there is something amiss... However, I don't know that the "symptoms" themselves are actually the problem, but rather a limited solution implemented by the storyteller that needs to be revisited. The symtoms, perhaps, are the "signal" that alerts us of the problem?