Healthy and Neurotic Components of Goal Setting*

The achievement syndrome may be viewed as neurotically patterned behavior masquerading as healthy adjustment. It comprises five areas in which major distortions are found: (1) the process of goal setting is initiated and sustained by unconscious conflict; (2) the process of achieving the goal is directed by sets of behavior not flexibly adapted to real needs; (3) the reaction to success or failure may seem paradoxical; (4) goals may not be set for oneself, but for others, and, in general, there may be externalization of one or more aspects of the goal-setting achievement process; (5) the entire sequence repeats itself indefinitely, with relatively minor elaborations and substitutions. The suppression of healthy tendencies by overpowering unconscious needs is a process that thrives through continuing replication off the neurotic template.

We will explore how the first of these distortions, choice of goals, is a reflection of the entire personality structure, including both healthy and neurotic elements. Goals motivated by neurotic needs form an aspect of the person's effort to devise a solution to conflicts generated by unconscious opposing trends. As Horney emphasized, these solutions are never successful because there is inadequate recognition of these trends, of the ways in which they were generated, of what keeps them going, and of how they are manifest in everyday life. More accurately, these are not solutions at all, but pseudosolutions because they only serve as holding operations in the struggle with anxiety, depression, psychosis, addiction, and other symptoms of psychopathology. Goal setting may play a significant role in establishing a temporary means to relieve these symptoms. A neurotic person may set a goal and then work toward it as if, in DeRosis’ terms, he were on a production schedule. The neurotic function of goal setting is determined by needs the person has little or no awareness of. Without sufficient awareness of his motivation, his goals are de