How do we know when we're dealing with someone else's conscious?

To see an unconscious conflict in action, listen to an agitated customer at the airline ticket counter or a customer on the phone fighting for a lower interest rate. After a good 5 minutes of back and forth, you have to wonder if the customer enjoys torturing the other. What is the "baiting" involved in the customer's unconscious hook--the the customer looking for the right moment to vent all the previous wrong-doings, real or imagined.

For the sales representative it's--a constant process of trying to swim away from the customer's hook, looking for ways to change direction within the limitations of a fish bowl.

This is also similar to the patient who takes pleasure in going to the doctor for a skin condition which he/she know could be treated with an over-the-counter cream. Not only does h/she need the "full-strength" prescription, but also the full 40 minutes of allotted time, reinforcing how h/she's tried all over-the-counter products and how none of them worked. The opportunity to bitch is priceless.