The Real Self: The Enigmatic Foundation of Karen Horney's Thought Chair: Henry Paul, M.D. Panelists: Bernard J. Paris, Ph.D., Andrew Tershakovec, M.D., Stephanie Steinfeld, Ph.D., Louis De Rosis, M.D.

In this spirited session, panelists wrestled to find language to describe the paradoxical essence of Horney's concept, the Real Self.

Bernard J. Paris framed the question of Real Self as the centerpiece of Horney's theory, albeit a centerpiece that appears to defy any easy categorization. Andrew Tershakovec traced the development of nonsequential holistic learning to the workings of the right brain. Louis DeRosis juxtaposed the “invented self” of the compulsive experience against the “exquisite ongoing relationship with reality,” which Horney called the experience of the Real Self. Stephanie Steinfeld related her intense personal encounter with a life-threatening illness and shared how, through the power of that experience, she created love and compassion for herself, others, and humankind.

Although some participants felt more comfortable with the gerund realizing than with the noun real, the clear consensus was that the Real Self remained, by whatever name, a difficult concept to assimilate into Western psychology. It seems to involve a radical and paradigmatic shift whereby health is seen to unfold in an ongoing relationship to illness and where health (and therefore Real Self) and illness exist in a nonstatic dialectical relationship to each other.

The metapsychological reality Horney called Real Self has acted as a gauntlet to Horney theorists and practitioners alike. Paris's explicit definition of it in this conference as the foundation of Karen Horney's theory again throws the gauntlet down. Despite its enigma (or perhaps because of it), it continues to remain the deepest core of Horney's thought and stands