confrontal

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The act of confronting.

   “Traces of Caledonian intrenchments and hill-forts occur so numerously for miles in the neighbourhood, and in such positions of confrontal to Ardoch, as to indicate that the Roman forces made a stiff and prolonged lodgment here, and met a vigorous resistance.”

   “Then the door of the elevator opened and a woman got out whom Marcy immediately recognised. In that moment of confrontal Marcy felt a strange sensation of guilt, as if she had stolen something and was being caught.”

   “By the constant encounters and confrontals of these Tests of the Golden Keys he is continuously “tried in the Fire” of the Ek-Klesia, which “proves every man’s Action, of what sort it is”; […]”

   “All social defenses are stripped away and the veritable soul of man stands forth, unashamed of its nakedness and unembarrassed for its deformities. Elemental forces are everywhere released. Everywhere they hint at poignant confrontals, so the night wind in the forest becomes an illuminating test of character and conduct.”

adj

1. That confronts.

   “I have been in many of these overly structured and disciplined schools. I have noticed that in these schools of confrontal teaching, teachers and children seemed to be caught in a common grimness.”

   ““When can I have an answer—I have other offers” (c) is better, if you feel confrontal on a given day; it lets the person know you’re valued. […] This is a question that you must answer in terms of your immediate reaction: what is your initial response when faced with a confrontal person? When dealing with confrontal people, taking the offensive in some way is the best strategy (b and d).”

   “The sense of abandonment to paint, or of wild painterliness, and of an imagery more fantastic than descriptive – freely transformative of a subject matter rather than transcriptive of its common appearance – and of a certain sense of confrontal alienation: all these are the signs of Expressionism, or rather, in the 80s, of Neo-Expressionism.”

   “Supportive and cognitive psychotherapies are often useful in guiding the elderly alcoholic toward a life without alcohol and as many other drugs as possible. The elderly will respond to confrontal and directive forms of psychotherapy for alcoholism and drug dependence as they do for other psychiatric illnesses.”

   “It is most important to note here that Dr. [M. Scott] Peck’s two cases of demonic possession grew directly out of a charismatic Christian religious practice called “deliverance”—a form of confrontal prayer challenge in which the participants (usually a minister and a prayer group), exhort a possibly possessed person to bring forth his demons.”