ABSTRACT
According to Horney, the goal of psychoanalysis is the patient’s discovery of the possibility of self-realisation and the recognition that good human relations are an essential part of this, along with the faculty for creative work and the acceptance of personal responsibility (1950:334). Persistent denial of childhood conflicts and their screening with defensive self-delusions block self-realisation. Irrational expectations or ‘neurotic claims’ such as self-idealisation obscure not only self-hate, but also ‘the unique alive forces’ that each self possesses and that are distorted by the self-illusions. The therapeutic process weakens the obstructive forces so that the constructive forces of the real self can emerge (348). The constructive forces in ego psychology become known as the ‘Third Force’.
