Neurosis and human growth
Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization is a 1950 book by the German-American psychoanalyst Karen Horney. It was the last book she published and the major work of her later years. In it she gives the fullest statement of the theory of neurosis she had been developing since The Neurotic Personality of Our Time (1937); her biographer Bernard J. Paris treats it as the centrepiece of what he calls her "mature theory".
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- Since I was diagnosed with ADHD last year I've been looking for other lenses to understand my own complex outside of a strictly genetic component. Self therapy, although I could probably use an actual therapist as well.
Between developmental theories of ADHD, complex PTSD, and even going back to old foundational texts (Karen Horney's Neurosis and Human Growth from 1950 was great) – I've found a lot of alignment on the theories of childhood abuse and neglect that lead to developmental disorders, in my case ADHD and depression.
As a child you have no basis for understanding what's wrong, or that the pain you feel is unusual. It's been a lot to process, and I'm not sure what to do with it yet, but at the very least it helps alleviate the weight of my rocky adulthood being "all my fault".
- Yes. And if I may continue with another old book that IMHO deserves to be mentioned: Neurosis and Human Growth by Karen Horney.
- Karen Horney - Neurosis and Human Growth
The book attempts to describe the complete process of neurotic personality development: how and why it starts, how it affects a person's behavior and life choices. It's full of references to real-life cases Horney encountered as a psychoanalyst.
Many concepts presented in this book where a revelation to me, and I believe it significantly deepened my understanding of myself and human psychology in general.
I think anyone could benefit from reading this, because even if you're not neurotic at all, you will inevitably meet someone who is.
- Just start reading from "Let us consider another demand : I should always be understanding, sympathetic, and helpful":
http://www.scribd.com/doc/34058295/Karen-Horney-Neurosis-and...
Karen Horney, "Neurosis and Human Growth : The Struggle Towards Self-Realization".
If I was asked to recommend a single book to read, I would recommend this. My 2nd would probably be a Jiddu Krishnamurthi book.
- re: the sociodynamic portion
Karen Horney (20th-century German psychoanalyst) in her book "Neurosis and Human Growth" talks quite a bit about this failure mode. The relevant bit I want to share is her talking about how a person may be in a state of neurosis due to not feeling like they are living up to their idealized self -- and that a commonly destructive response to that neurosis is trying to force everyone around them to treat and perceive them as if they were that idealized self and not the flawed real self they are (regardless of whether the people around believe or are deceived into believing that, which is where she diverges from your point a bit but I think you're touching on very similar things).
- I have been lurking on Hacker News for a little under eleven years now and have just now created an account, for whatever this is worth.
Within my own life, I've noticed a similar pattern to the one you've described: when I have felt low, such feelings have often coincided with me not feeling that productive at work. Perhaps I'm working on working on a project that isn't particularly motivating. Perhaps I've hit some technical snag that requires me to reconsider my approach and/or implement some inelegant solution that triggers my perfectionistic tendencies.
I'll now project some of my own thoughts / feelings about this stuff that may or may not resonate with you (perhaps they'll resonate with some other reader, though). As another commenter has already pointed out, I think a lot of this causal link between happiness and productivity (I think the causality is bidirectional, too), is conditioned in some way. Specifically, I think this sort of depression arises when we fail to live up to some internally-held, idealized image of ourselves. Having some standards to live up to is probably healthy, although, if the standards are too high or unrealistic, then neuroses will follow. For context, I'm drawing a lot on Karen Horney's ideas in _Neurosis and Human Growth_. If this diagnosis makes resonates, then the solution is to diminish the role one's idealized self plays in one's thoughts and actions, which diminishment probably involves a lot of mindfulness and also some sifting through of one's "shoulds". What are the top ten things that you're thinking of doing? For each of those things, consider: is this something that you think you should do, or it something you actually want to do? If the former, continue to introspect: why do you feel like you should be doing something you don't want to do.
Obviously, there's some things we all must do that we probably don't want to do. I think with work, though, it's very easy to become disconnected from what you actually want. If you don't like what you do on some fundamental level, or something feels off inherently (even if this feeling is unconscious), you'll probably begin to dissociate / compartmentalize in some way which might contribute to your underlying feelings of depression.
Again, I'm assuming a lot, here - maybe this applies, maybe this doesn't. Whatever the cause, I wish you the best in dealing with it. Life's too short to take too seriously :).
