For us to perceive two different concepts or entities as “opposite,” we first require that they have at least something in common. This (or these) shared trait(s) serve as a basis for comparisons to be made. For example, if you asked a kid (because kids are quite intuitive) who is the opposite of “mother”, he or she would answer “father”, even though they both are parents, and are both blood-related to a children. However, if one follows through with semantic analysis, he or she might end up with a different kind of opposite—having no trait in common, and in our example, this opposite of “mother” would be “nephew.”
Using this idea that contrary things do have common ground, we can then focus on this shared interest to help resolve issues more effectively. [insert concrete example…]