“When he makes a pact with the devil who promises him glory, he has to go to hell- to the hell within himself”. Chapter six is titled “Alienation From Self “, which is the isolation of the neurotic from his own beliefs, wishes, feelings, and energies. The goal is to bring person back to their real self, which is a set of intrinsic potentialities, not a fixed entity. The intrinsic potentialities include talents, capacities, temperament, and predispositions, which are apart of our genetic makeup, in order to develop.
Since someone cannot be taught, “to be their self”, this is not something that is a product of leaning. The active forces of self-alienation are all that is compulsive, moving away from the real self, and active moves against. When it comes to their personality pride governs their feelings. Chapter seven is, “General Measures to Relieve Tension”. Self-idealization in this sense if putting ones self above any of the conflicts that result in difficulties. Alienation from self is one way that relieves oneself from tension that is operating all of the time.
The next of importance is externalization of the inner experiences, and also compartmentalization or psychic fragmentation. These attempts at restoring inner peace, remove the real self, remove inner experiences, and remove connections that would disrupt the balance. Another measure that follows a similar trend would be automatic control, which basically puts a check on feelings. The last basic measure would be supremacy of the mind, which generally means it is no longer: feelings and mind, but feelings versus mind, body and mind, but body versus mind.
Although it sounds like they are contradictory this measure does relieve tension in three ways by the mind: becoming a spectator, a co-ordinator, and the magic ruler. Chapter eight is about “The Expansive Solution: The Appeal of Mastery”. A neurotic can sometimes be confused with their identity because at times the feel as if they are their true self, glorified self and despised self. They can identify themselves with their despised self and their superior self or with his subdued-self.
If they feel these opposites at the same time they will feel as if they are being pulled in opposite directions, if they do not fix it they will feel anxiety. Some solutions to this would be for the person to compartmentalize, streamline, withdraw interest, and resign form the active psychic living. The expansive solution, is when the neurotic identifies themselves with their glorified self and believe, conscious or not, that they must master and overcome difficult situations and the adversities of fate.
In addition, they deny any part of themselves that does not live up to their “Godlike self”. There are three types of expansive types, the perfectionist, the narcissistic, and the arrogant-vindictive. The narcissistic is simply use the excursive of charm and self-admiration; perfectionist is all about standards and achieving them; the arrogant vindictiveness is focused on being invincible and the need for vindictive triumph. One thing all of these types have in common is they aim to master life. “The Self-Effacing Solution: The Appeal of Love”, is discussed in chapter nine.
Karen Horney explains that they must not feel superior to others, consciously, and must put themselves second to them. Some characteristics would be: feeling uncomfortable when others admire them, longs for protection and help, and surrenders to love. They have a tendency to live with a constant sense of failure because they are always measuring themselves up to their shoulds. Also they find a very passive way to externalize self-hate. When it comes to games they have a fear of winning, so they minimize their accomplishments and cannot accept the credit.
They typically score anything that is considered doing it for “just them”. The expansive type usually grew up with the burden of rigid standards and even were harshly treated and humiliated. On the other hand the self-effacing type grew up in the shadow of either a beautiful mother, a kindly autocratic father, or a favored sibling. The affection they required was attainable but only at a price, which would be self-subordinating devotion. The next chapter is “Morbid Dependency”. In this chapter Horney considers the self-effacing type to see erotic love as their ticket to paradise.
To them this means no more loneliness; feeling lost, unworthy, or struggle with the “hostile” world. They are just as enticed by being loved as loving someone else. So in their mind when they love, it means to become one with the other what one does not have the other fills and they complete each other, this unity which they cannot find on their own. They see it as when loved they obtain the highest of confirmation of their idealized self’s lovable attributes. Chapter eleven is, “Resignation: The Appeal of Freedom”. This chapter elaborates on how they see peace and simply the absence of conflicts.
They have a tendency to settle for less and give up when there is struggle, finding no point in striving. They do not actively participate in their own life, becoming detached. Some examples would be a man having so many ideas for inventions, but never makes the effort to design it and follow through. It is unfortunate because they see nothing being desirable enough to make an effort for, which gives them a conscious pessimistic view on life. Being emotionally distant from others is very common and the thought of getting too attached to something that they couldn’t live without it frightens them.
Their idealized image would be a glorification of a fusion of self-sufficiency, self-contained serenity, independence, with a freedom from passions, desires and fairness. These kinds of people take themselves out of the game before even starting it. “Neurotic Disturbances in Human Relationships”, is the topic for chapter twelve, how the pride system has an influence on our relations with others. When it comes to the pride system, egocentrism removes the neurotic from the others. They tend to put others second to themselves, along with their individuality and opinions.
Because of their desire for admiration, others are turned into admires, which leaves their need for triumph to be divide others into plotting rivals or followers. This all could be from a child’s basic anxiety development because of their lack of a warm secure environment. This basic anxiety prevents the child from relating with others and their own real feelings. In order for these children to eventually receive self realization the need a warm, encouraging environment that offers them the opportunity to create their own thoughts, feelings, and emotions to express themselves.
Chapter thirteen is titled, “Neurotic Disturbances in Work”. This chapter is not about external difficulties but is about neurotic disturbances as they are brought into the work place. There are some general and obvious factors that all neuroses have in common but are not limited to: self-confidence, an adequate appraisal of what is entailed, conditions that might be to rigid, inner relatedness to the work, the joy or satisfaction. All of these factors could potential cause some disturbances in the work place. Expansive types tend to overrate their capacities, they also believe there is no obstacle they cannot overcome.
All of these disturbances may differ according to each of those of narcissistic, perfectionist or arrogant-vindictive trends. “The Road of Psychoanalytic Therapy”, is a process that is said to flourish by its own momentum. Horney makes it clear that the word “cure” is only fitting if we use it as a term of relief towards a symptom. Only when the patient begins to surrender the illusions on themselves and their illusory goals they will have an opportunity to find their real potentialities and begin to develop them.
The patient must not only be aware of the individual factors but also the interactions and connections that go along with it. They must realize there is not a quick fix and one simple answer. “Theoretical Considerations”, explained how like everything else in the world, more research is being preformed and information is found and applied to previous research. Karen Horney stated that, “while focusing on the attitude toward I realized that people hated and despised themselves with the same intensity and the same irrationality with which they idealized themselves “(368). Personally I thought this was an amazing book.
I chose it because I was not as familiar with Karen Horney’s work as I was with others, so I wanted more of a challenge when reading it. This was also a very easy book to read and understand, only a few times did I have to reread over a section to make sure I understood it. The examples provided in each section made this book more applicable to real life rather than just stated theories. The examples really put each topic she addressed into perspective for me. I enjoyed how every topic she spoke about she brought up the factors that led to it, the way they would typically behave and how to deal with it.
She covered every aspect when bringing up a new focus and left me with no questions. Although I felt like many of her topics overlapped with each other in content and meaning, I felt like her explanations really clarified and helped me differentiate things. I thought Neurotic Claims, Tyranny of the Should, and Neurotic Pride were especially interesting, mostly because I see it on a daily basis. I am really pleased that I chose this book and definitely would recommend it to those who even think they have an interest in this subject.
