Karen Horney's Alienation From Self

“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.
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
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