Failure to assert

William F

If a person can only assert themselves through argument and conflict what might they be suffering from?

And generally speaking, how would such an individual break the cycle of introducing conflict into their life to assert themselves?

Torakx

If it was rooted in low self esteem( or a fear of losing power), breaking the cycle might involve a certain level of self acceptance. Which I believe requires a certain level of self discovery, investigation, research.
In my own case I found the use of the philosophy of duality to turn what seems bad at first, into something that is good or my strength.

But the root of the issue described could lie elsewhere too.
I tend to think of agression or violence as fearful and defensive behaviour.
The dog that is scared is the one that will bite and we all do still have a strong link to our primal instincts.
If we feel small in some area of our life or self, we seem to be more prone to developing coping behaviours that try to pre-empt or counter the issue on our unconscious minds.
I am not an academic though..
Armchair philosopher maybe
Oh in addition, I am also keeping in mind that our behaviour is often shaped by our environment and role models.
If you think of diagnoses of individual issues as a series of circles overlaping a central circle, each representing a cause, it would be a good way to view the amount of investigation it could take to circle in on and deal with various issues.
Each solution and reason would be at least slightly different, hence my personal preference for personal discovery and investigation of self through research.

JuliusCaesar

Assertiveness training shows that assertiveness is neither passivity nor aggression. An assertive person does not generally need to be aggressive.

But nobody can escape conflict. There will always be episodes of conflict in everyone's life. It's how you handle conflict that is important. Conflicts can generally be settled in discussion, without resorting to heated arguments, rows, and so on.