In this weeks Personality Psychology class we covered information from chapter five of the Personality Theories textbook and I found it interesting because I am not that familiar with the work of Karen Horney. I have found that Karen Horney has an in depth and interesting theory on the idealized self. Horney found that the real self is what is actually true about ourselves and she believed that the idealized self is what we think we should be. The idealized self helps people to develop their abilities and the process of self actualization. In a normal person the ideal and real self are closeley related because the idealized self is created through ones own evaluation of capabilities and possibilities. But in some neurotic people the real and ideal self are separated because the neurotic person does not understand their ideal self and they only acknowledge their real self. Horney referred to this situation also known as isolation or the "devils pact" when a person in neurosis lets go of their real self to create a glorified self by only acknowledging their idealized self. Horney also refereed to certain neurotic people who create their own genuine needs or feelings as going through a process known as the "tyranny of the should". It is interesting to understand more about the idealized self because it is an essential concept in psychology that is a characteristic of all people. I think that Horney's idealized self is an interesting concept that helps to gain insight into how people perceive their realty.