Karen Horney Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Bernard J. Paris

Critical Essay by Bernard J. Paris

SOURCE: "Bargains with Fate: The Case of Macbeth" in The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 42, No. 1, Spring, 1982, pp. 7-20.

In the following essay, which was originally presented at a conference held in February of 1981, Paris offers an interpretation of William Shakespeare's drama Macbeth (1606) utilizing some key concepts from Horney's psychoanalytic theory.

According to Horney, each of the interpersonal strategies of defense involves a "bargain with fate" in which if a person lives up to his shoulds, his claims are supposed to be honored. The bargain of the self-effacing individual is that if he is a good, loving, noble person who shuns pride and does not seek private gain or glory, he will be well-treated by fate and by other people. The narcissistic person feels that if he holds onto his dreams and to his exaggerated claims for himself, life is bound to give him what...
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