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Fear of success is a syndrome of multiple meanings occurring in both men and women. Combined with a masochistic mental process the phenomenon may lead to complex therapeutic problems. Psychoanalytic study of its meaning for women has steadily increased over the years (Horney, 1935; Horner, 1972; Hoffman, 1974; Person, 1982; Kanefield, 1985b). The manifestations and meaning of fear of success in Asian women, while not fundamentally different, may be overlayed by cultural mores that further complicate its therapy.
Fear of success in women may be manifested through underachievement or repetitious nonattainment of self-defined goals, and an inflexible ego-ideal by which the self's failure is critically evaluated. A broad definition of masochism may include self-destructive behavior, eroticized pain, a proclivity toward suffering and unhappiness, or behavior inviting interpersonal degradation. However, in this paper the use of masochism refers to the motive of failure, and the self-castigation, self-hatred, and unhappiness that is the response to the failure of achievement of the ego-ideal. The realms of success may vary from career achievement to success in social relationships (Major, 1986) while personal aspirations and ego-ideals are individually determined.
Schafer (1984) describes patients in whom “entrenched psychical suffering” is perpetuated, even idealized, so that a patient feels a need to disparage herself, or represent herself as burdened, humiliated, or miserable. A reversal of value had taken place developmentally insofar as the self was valued and defined by its suffering, a value established via identification with a devalued and unhappy parent. This reversal of success and failure may be manifested as repetitive failure in tasks attempted but not achieved,