“Oh, there is a lot of talk in the world about treachery and faithlessness, and, God help us, it is unfortunately all too true. But still let us never forget because of this that the most dangerous traitor of all is the one every person has within himself. This treachery, whether it consists in selfishly loving oneself or consists in selfishly not willing to love oneself in the right way—this treachery is admittedly a secret. No cry is raised as it usually is in the case of treachery and faithlessness.”
As early as The Concept of Anxiety (June 1844) and “To Need God Is the Human Being’s Highest Perfection” (August 1844), Kierkegaard exhibited a profound interest in the inner dynamics of the self. This same concern turns up in Works of Love, albeit in a different way. The passage cited above is taken from an extended reflection on how Christianity does not only oblige one to love the neighbor; it also commands one to love oneself. “If anyone is unwilling to learn from Christianity to love himself in the right way,” Kierkegaard observes, “he cannot love the neighbor either.” Indeed, it may be that interpersonal failures and even social ills stem from the human being’s refusal to love herself or himself rightly. For when one side of the self betrays the other, as it were, the upshot is a form of self-hatred that Kierkegaard elsewhere refers to as “despair” (Fortvivlelse)—the so-called “sickness unto death.”