The Fear of Success and Self-Sabotage
An analysis of Veronika decides to die
In the fight for survival, striving for self-improvement and success is thought to be an innate characteristic of humans. However, we often see examples of self-sabotage either in ourselves or in literature.
The natural question that follows is what makes an individual predisposed to these behaviours. Ruderman (2006), claims that women are more likely to experience fear of success and engage in self-sabotage because ‘the conflict in women reflects guilt and fear at surpassing their mother’ and girls ‘receive less encouragement to develop separate identities’ from their mothers.
Since this fear of success and self-destructive acts are considered to go against human nature, it would be easy to collectively label them as acts of madness, or female hysteria, and continue with our existence.
Nonetheless, because our knowledge in the fields of psychology and psychiatry has evolved past this misogynistic assumption, we will take a closer look at the causes and manifestations of this paradox to better understand it, and in an attempt to find a treatment for it, if there is any. Thus, this paper plans to answer three questions:
- What is the relation between fear of success and depression?
- Is the fear of success an innate characteristic of being a woman?
- How can it be cured?
To achieve this, we will analyse the book by Paolo Coelho, Veronika decides to die, and more specifically, we will study the characters of Veronika, Zedka and Mari, three examples of how fear of success manifests itself and the varying self-destructive methods to cope with it.
Plot summary
The action of the book takes place in a conflict inflamed Slovenia, after the separation of former Yugoslavia. A failed suicide attempt is the inciting incident of the book. Veronika purposely overdoses on sleeping pills being deeply dissatisfied with her life. She awakes, after a week spent in a comatose state, in Villette, a mental asylum in Ljubljana.
There, unbeknownst to her, Veronika becomes the centrepiece of an unethical experiment conducted by the head of the asylum, Dr Igor. His hypothesis is that all mental illnesses are caused by a substance called Vitriol, or Bitterness. He sets out to cure it, by using a false pretence — Veronika’s overdose has irreparably damaged her heart, leaving her with five more days to live. This awareness of death will cure her Bitterness and inspire new enthusiasm for life, or so hopes Dr Igor.
In the institution, Veronika questions her sanity and gets new perspectives on madness from other patients, mainly Zedka, a middle-aged woman suffering from depression, and Mari, a woman in her 60s that experiences panic attacks.
Veronika rediscovers her passion for playing the piano and embraces the madness of freeing herself from inhibitions and others’ expectations of her. With the knowledge that she will soon die, the girl allows herself to feel more intensely than she did outside the sanatorium. Her new gusto for life is aided by Eduard, a patient suffering from schizophrenia, who Veronika comes to love. They escape Villette together on the eve of Veronika’s final day to live it to the fullest. The next morning comes with another chance at life for the girl, and the ending of the novel.
Depression and the fear of success
In this section, we will address the causality between fear of success and depression with the aid of the literary analysis of the characters Veronika and Zedka. Despite the observable signs, Veronika claims not to be depressed, while the other woman is clinically diagnosed in the book.
In discussing the concept of ‘fear of success’, defined by Dascal (2017) as ‘a psychological barrier experienced by individuals who anticipate negative consequences as a result of success’, we must clarify that self-sabotage is often a manifestation of it. When it comes to depression and self-sabotage, Rothbaum, Morling & Rusk (2009) characterize the relationship between the two concepts as a ‘vicious cycle’. There has been evidence of both self-sabotaging behaviours (or self-handicapping as it is referred to in the paper) as a predictor of depression, and depression as an indicator of self-sabotage. In the following lines, we will try to determine the temporal order of depression and fear of success in the characters mentioned, by literary analysis.
Looking at Veronika, we can see the automatism behind her day-to-day life. She has a strict routine and presents no interest in anything that could disturb it. Despite the narrator saying she is not depressed: ‘she was not killing herself because she was a sad, embittered woman, constantly depressed’ (Coelho, 2016, p. 9), her apathy is always present, a sign of her fragile mental state: ‘the tragedy of a life in which everything repeats itself and where one day is exactly like another’ (Coelho, 2016, p. 10).
Veronika may not think of herself as being depressed, and when the story is told from Dr Igor’s perspective the girl is not diagnosed in any way, but we will assume that depression is what she is suffering from, although it is not major clinical depression. Decreased interest in most activities (‘her existence had no meaning’ Coelho, 2016, p. 40), feelings of worthlessness and suicidality (‘suicide: freedom at last’ Coelho, 2016, p. 7) are signs of depression manifested in Veronika’s behaviour.
As for the fear of success, which is ‘linked to self-defeating tendencies including low self-esteem and self-efficacy’ (Dascal, 2017, p. 1), Veronika demonstrates powerlessness to change her life which she does not enjoy.
From the way the story goes, we can see that the protagonist’s fear precedes her depressive attitude since the life she creates for herself is built through self-sabotage: ‘she didn’t struggle and so she didn’t grow’ (Coelho, 2016, p. 39). Her lack of self-efficacy to find meaning and joy in her life furthers her depressive state to the point of suicide. Here, the fear of success is a much more encompassing issue than depression, as it fits the definition given by Sigmund Freud: ‘success brings about unconscious associations with defeating others, thereby generating feelings of guilt and inferiority associated with the Oedipal dilemma of surpassing parental figures and losing their love and care’ (as paraphrased by Dascal 2017, p. 2).
Zedka on the other hand is suffering from depression, as she is diagnosed in the book. For her, the fear of success and her depressive state overlap almost entirely. Both her self-sabotage behaviours and her depression are triggered by the memory of Zedka’s impossible love: ‘a presentiment of something bad […] that sadness, however, did not pass’ (Coelho, 2016, p. 52).
That love turns out to be only a pretext for her breakdown, and the real reason behind Zedka’s depression is arguably her dissatisfaction with her life being fenced in by societal expectations: ‘she had used her Impossible Love as an excuse, a pretext for breaking the ties with the life she led, and which was far from being the life she had expected for herself’ (Coelho, 2016, p. 95). Living a life of domestic bliss does not fullfil her ideals of happiness.
However, we can argue that since her expectations and reality not aligning is the trigger for her depression, it is her not recognizing this rupture and not acting towards her happiness that are the true precursors for her depressive state.
That is further strengthened by the perpetual self-sabotaging practices after her depression regresses. Zedka ponders the option of staying in Villette after she had been cured, a way of not taking responsibility for her happiness. Fortunately, she does not give in to this fear and chooses to leave the mental institution: ‘I want to continue being mad, living my life the way I dream it, and not the way other people want it to be’ (Coelho, 2016, p. 31).
From this analysis we can conclude that strictly for the characters from Veronika decides to die, the fear of success is a better-rooted issue than depression. While the manifestation of the self-sabotage is quite different (Veronika attempts suicide, Zedka has a mental breakdown), the fear of success seems to precede depression.
Fear of success — an innate female characteristic?
As previously discussed, fear of success is a phenomenon most predominant in women, and while individuals regardless of their gender can struggle with this issue, our analysis will focus on women given the chosen novel. We will target two different characters. Veronika refused success to maintain her relationship with her mother and Mari struggled with the conflict between her professional ambitions and her marriage.
Veronika, a 24-year-old woman, has a life devoid of hardship and her sole obligation is to meet her mother’s expectations. Veronika should become a wife and dedicate her life to managing her household and raising children as her mother did. Dr Ellen Ruderman (2006), explains in her case study how women feel ‘imprisoned’ by the traditional gender roles imposed by their caregivers since infancy. And that is true for Veronika as well. Her mother raised her to become a good wife, a ‘narcissistic extension’ of herself (Ruderman, 2006, p. 90).
Veronika cannot imagine going against her mother’s wishes. The alternative is to live an unfulfilling life that cannot be escaped. The character can neither live up to her mother’s expectations nor disappoint her. Veronika’s passion for playing the piano, an early attempt to create an identity outside of her mother, is met with disdain by her main caregiver. And the thought of pursuing a musical career is seen as ludicrous and punishable.
In this paradigm, the girl is faced with a choice between following her dreams and keeping the relationship with her mother. ‘Separating or moving forward threatens the attachment and could result in what is felt to be the disintegration of the self’ (Ruderman, 2006, p. 91).
This conundrum leaves Veronika stuck in a meaningless life, unable to move forward: ‘everything in her life was the same and, once her youth was gone […] the likelihood of suffering only increased. […] Everything was wrong, and she had no way of putting things right’ (Coelho, 2016, p. 6).
Mari had reached professional success and peace in her family life before the panic attacks began. She was a prestigious lawyer, her children were grown up and her marriage was a rewarding partnership. All of that changed once she had decided to change tracks in her career.
As Mari felt that she had reached the height of her profession and saw all of its limitations, she thought of new ways to help people and her attention landed on humanitarian missions in El Salvador. Her altruistic nature was not fulfilled in her work as a lawyer: ‘She was tired of struggling with bureaucracy and lawsuits, unable to help people […] Working with the Red Cross, though, she would see immediate results’ (Coelho, 2016, p. 104). When she decided to exteriorize her desire to change careers, Mari experienced her first panic attack.
Relating to the work of Dr Ruderman, Mari was probably having an internal conflict between the gender roles assumed in her marriage and her new professional ambition. The fact that her first panic attack resulted from the decision to inform her husband about her humanitarian aspiration shows that she felt unable to disclose this to him: ‘The option of choosing a career runs counter to that of building or losing a significant love relationship’ (Ruderman, 2006, p. 88). For Mari, choosing this new career path meant the destruction of her marriage. She felt it impossible to maintain both, which caused an internal crisis manifested through intense panic attacks.
After her being committed to Villette, Mari learns about her problem and is cured of her panic attacks. But it’s too late. She loses her partner status in the law firm she owned, and not long after that, the loving marriage she had. This pushes her to further fear success and becomes content with the life inside the mental institution: ‘People preferred to live in a huge asylum, religiously following rules written by who knows who, rather than fighting for the right to be different.’ (Coelho, 2016, p. 192).
From the analysis of these characters’ lives, we can determine two things. The importance of the relationship between mother and child on the child’s perception of success and the compromises women have to make between their professional needs and maintaining relational ties with others. However, the analysis reveals that the gender of the characters does not determine their fear of success, as highlighted by the results mentioned by Dascal (2017). Women performing in gender-incompatible fields report a significantly higher fear of success than those performing traditionally feminine work, but other research has found the same result in men too. Simply put, one’s femininity does not cause one to engage in self-sabotage, but it does point to different aspects of their fear of success.
‘Awareness of life’ and ‘living a bit more mad’ — the cure for self-sabotage
At the end of the novel, all three women are said to be cured of Bitterness but let’s put that to the test. As the characters presumably have different mental issues (Veronika and Zedka — depression, and Mari — panic attacks) we will analyse their recovery from the in-book illness, Bitterness.
The closest mental issue to Bitterness is depression. As discussed previously, depression can be caused by the fear of success, and similarly, Bitterness can appear ‘when the person becomes afraid of so-called “reality”’ (Coelho, 2016, p. 80).
Dr Igor hopes that by exposing Veronika and the other patients to the awareness of life and death, their Bitterness will be cured. From the patients’ perspective, it is madness itself that cures them: ‘she should have allowed herself to be a little madder’ (Coelho, 2016, p. 148) ‘madness freed me’ (Coelho, 2016, p. 148).
What changed for these women is their beliefs and goals. As Rothbaum et al. (2009) explain, vulnerable self-beliefs coupled with self-worth goals can lead to depression. In other words, people that link their self-esteem to their notion of success as opposed to failure are more prone to depression. But if one has learning goals, allowing themselves to fail, one can step away from depressive states.
Dr Igor’s Bitterness can be cured similarly. The patients need to become willing to live; and to this end, they are faced with reshaping their beliefs: ‘The young woman’s case, though, was dramatic because she was so young and because she now wanted to live again […] “What if that happened to me? I do have a chance to live. Am I making good use of it?”’ (Coelho, 2016, p. 101).
Conclusion
Before drawing a definitive conclusion, we must disclaim a few limitations of this analysis that might explain the differences found between previous literature used and the present study.
While the works cited in this paper are all scientific studies based on either case studies or experimental surveys, the present work is a literary analysis that used the concepts measured in those previous studies. Therefore, it is to be expected that the results of this paper might not align with all of the results from previous literature. Furthermore, as this is a literary analysis, the cases analyzed are characters designed to support a theme and not human individuals that could be assumed representative to a population.
Nonetheless, the study at hand is a useful interpretation of the book written by Paolo Coelho from the psychological perspective of fear of success. The literary analysis showed how gender can play a part in the manifestation of self-sabotage, found fear of success to be a predictor of depressive states and looked into the miraculous ending of the book — the cure for Bitterness.
All in all, the novel paints an unusually accurate image of mental illness and an especially surprising account of women facing different mental issues. Paolo Coelho goes beyond creating characters, and instead writes credible women, making the book very compelling. With parts of psychiatric knowledge and parts of fictional illusion, Veronika decides to die is a story between madness and normality.
Photo by Jakub Kriz on Unsplash
Reference
Coelho, P. (2016). Veronika decides to die (Ebook edition). London UK: HarperCollins Publishers
Dascal, J. (2017). Examining the role of anxiety and depression in predicting fear of success (Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Northridge).
Rothbaum, F., Morling, B., & Rusk, N. (2009). How goals and beliefs lead people into and out of depression. Review of General Psychology, 13(4), 302–314.
Ruderman, E. G. (2006). Nurturance and self-sabotage: Psychoanalytic perspectives on women’s fear of success. International Forum of Psychoanalysis Vol. 15, №02, pp. 85–95.
