Am J Psychiatry 1981; 138:95-98
Copyright © 1981 by American Psychiatric Association
Origins of the fear of success
JO Cavenar Jr and DS Werman
Although neurotic conflicts relating to achievement and success are common
among patients in psychoanalysis, the psychoanalytic literature is
remarkably limited and tends to portray conflict relating to success only
in terms of oedipal conflict. Through four clinical vignettes of patients
in psychoanalysis, the authors demonstrate that the fear of success is an
overdetermined final common pathway for conflicts at any of several
developmental levels.
