" Finally, although anxiety is temporarily stirred up by the undermining of established defenses, each step that is profitably taken is bound to diminish it, because the patient becomes less afraid of others and of himself. The general result of these changes is an improvement in the patient's relations with others and with himself. He becomes less isolated; to the extent that he becomes stronger and less hostile, others gradually cease to be a menace to be fought, manipulated, or avoided. He can afford to have friendly feelings for them. His relations with himself improve as externalization is relinquished and self-contempt disappears. "

― Karen Horney , Our Inner Conflicts: A Constructive Theory of Neurosis