It's one easy way to develop tension... it depends on semantics around the word "conflict". Like you say, it need not be violent and in the case of something like an existential crisis a person may be internally conflicted while not being in a state of confrontation with another person. I sense that the OP intended "conflict" to be taken in the context of confrontations between people and that tension need not be the result of confrontations, which is something of an obsession in our culture.