Chapter 5 – Neo-Psychoanalytic Approach: Karen Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory

Background of Karen Horney

 Nee Danielsen
 Born in Germany
 Parents had large age difference
o Mother was second wife
o Did see much of her half-siblings
 Had an older brother
o Felt very competitive
o Thought he was favoured especially by father
 Hostility toward father, adored mother
 Trained as a physician specializing in psychiatry
 Trained in psychoanalysis
 Had three daughters but both her and husband had many affairs
o Separated from her husband
 Emigrated to US
 Was close friends with Eric Fromm (another personality theorist)
o Later became lovers

1. View of Man Underlying the Theory

 Optimistic view
 The personality inherently tends toward constructive development and growth
o We are on a path towards growth
o Unhealthy relationships with the self and others can inhibit the path towards full
potential
 Inherent drive and capacity to grow and develop potential to the fullest
 Socially oriented like Adler
o Balancing needs of self and society
 Less emphasises on childhood experiences compared to Freud

2. Structures of the Personality

 Little attention paid to structural elements (like Adler) or developmental principles
 Most attention paid to psychodynamics of personality

3. The Dynamics of the Personality

The Selves
 Idealized self (the impossible self)
o Result of feelings of being inferior
 Difference from Adler who says that everyone has feelings of inferiority
 According to Horney, you don’t have to feel inferior
o Idea of creating vision of yourself that is better than anyone else
o Omnipotent
o Unlimited potential
 o Aspects:
 Neurotic search for glory
 Drive toward trying to make this idealized self into your actual real
self
 Trying to make this who you actually are
 Tyranny of shoulds
o The person sets up a view of what perfection is and you
“should do this to be perfect” and you “should not do this
to be perfect”
o Influences how a person behave to try and make the
idealized self-real
 Includes neurotic ambition
o Being the best at things
o Focus on things that you think will bring them success
o Won’t try things that they think they won’t be good at
 Included vindictive triumph
o Idea of bringing other people down to bring yourself up
 Neurotic claims
 Expect to be treated as special, sense of entitlement, privilege
 Assume they are amazing so everyone should give them more
attention and focus
 Neurotic pride
 Pride based on idealized self
 Ultimately a false pride
 Loudly proclaim their achievements whether they are real or not
 Hurt if people don’t acknowledge them as perfect
 Real self (the possible self)
o The force which urges the individual in the direction of growth and self-
fulfillment
o “Who one could be” if they nurture this growth
o The self that one can become if all the potentialities are developed
o Realistic version of yourself
o Achieving growth towards the real self
o Can be difficult because it requires a very healthy environment to grow up in
o Motivation and direction of our development
o What gives meaning and value to our life is the process of trying to actualize this
self
 Actual self
o The person as he consciously acts in daily life
o “Who one currently is”
o Neurotics have a large discrepancy between their idealized and actual self
 Reject actual self in favour of idealized self
o Mixture of strength and weaknesses
  Can never be perfect

* these are not structures

Safety Need

 We are on a path to growth, but it can get derailed by parenting

 Infants and children have safety needs
o Need for security, freedom from fear
o Depends on how the parent treats the child
 If parent provides warmth and is responsive to the child’s needs, it results in the need
being satisfied and leads toward growth
 If parents are irresponsibility, not warm or responsive, it results in the needs not being
met which results in basic hostility or anxiety
o Blocks the energy needed for growth
o Basic anxiety related to feelings of helplessness, isolation, loneliness, insecurity
 Not being able to cope with the world
o Basic hostility relates to aggressive feelings towards the world around you
 Feel like you need to protect yourself from this hostile world
 You can develop neuroses at any stage in life, but most neuroses begins in childhood
o Blames mom and dad
 Factors in the parent-child relationship that can give rise to basic hostility and anxiety:
o Direct or indirect domination
o Indifference
o Erratic behaviour
o Lack of respect for the child’s individual needs
o Lack of real guidance
o Disparaging attitudes
o Too much admiration or the absence of it
o Lack of reliable warmth
o Having to take sides in parental disagreements
o Too much or too little responsibility
o Overprotection
o Isolation from other children
o Injustice
o Discrimination
o Unkept or broken promises
 o Hostile atmosphere
 Result of basic hostility and basic anxiety
o Self-protective mechanisms
 Ways that we try to protect ourselves and defend against basic anxiety
 Securing affection and love – doing whatever the other person wants to
get affection and love
 Being submissive – complying with others wishes
 Attaining power – overcoming helplessness by achieving success and
compensation
 Withdrawing – withdrawing from others and becoming independent
 Can become permanent to personality which leads to drive/need which
determines the individuals’ behaviours (see below)
o Neurotic needs
 Don’t develop all, develop some or one
 Affection and approval
 A dominant partner
 Power
 Exploitation
 Prestige
 Admiration
 Achievement or ambition
 Self-sufficiency
 Perfection
 Narrow limits of life
o Neurotic trends
 Interpersonal styles/ways of interacting with other people
 Movement towards other people
 Compliant/submissive personality
 If I give in, I won’t get hurt
 Acknowledges their own helplessness and seek acknowledge and
support from others
 Common for people brought up in another person’s shadow
 Needs to be like, loved, wanted, desired, etc.
 Need 1 and 2 lead to the development of this trend
 Movement against other people
 Aggressive personality
 If I have power, no one can hurt me
 World is a hostile place and the way to deal with it is to meet it
with more hostility
 Mistrusting of feelings of other people
 Exploitation of others
 Needs 3 to 7 lead to the development of this trend
 Movement away from other people
  Detached personality
 If I withdraw, no one will be able to hurt me
 Avoid being dependent on anyone else
 Don’t want to be hostile to others or receive hostility, just want to
back away from it
 Appear aloof, emotional distance, don’t form close attachments,
shields around them
 Most destructive because social relationships are important to
healthy development
 Needs 8 to 10 lead to the development of this trend
 Normal person has all three styles and uses them for different situations
when needed. Neurotic person is fixated on one style and only uses the
one style regardless of whether it is appropriate or not.

4. Development of the Personality

 No specific stages
 Mature personality is shaped by childhood experiences, but the personality is capable of
change
 Addresses the progression from the safety needs to neuroses
 Doesn’t talk about when things go right
 Personality is shaped by childhood experiences
 All of use retain the capacity to change even in fundamental ways
 Plasticity in personality across all of our lives

5. Optimal Development
 The actual self is not rejected in favour of the idealized self
o Able to acknowledge your actual self and its strengths and weaknesses
 The individual does not have to defend himself during interactions with other people by
becoming fixated in one interpersonal style
 The individual is in contact with his actual self and his true potentialities and is freely
able to move towards, away from, and against other people without neurotic limitations

6. Psychopathology
 Difference between optimal normal functioning and neurosis is only a difference of
degree
o Same with Freud, Jung, and Alder

The Neurotic Personality

 Supresses the unacceptable features and internal conflicts of the actual self, and masks
them through the development of an idealized self
 Typically, the neurotic person identifies with one particular interpersonal style

The Vicious Cycle

 The discrepancy
between the actual self
& the idealized self

Idealized self is
Further basic hostility
separated even further
and anxiety
from the actual self

Greater investment in
the idealized self and Greater internal conflict
“the tyranny of shoulds”

7. Implications and Applications

 Psychotherapy
o Goals of psychotherapy:
 The development of a realistic relationship between the idealized and the
actual self such that the person is enabled to accepts himself as he is and
to set realistic goals for the future
 Release from the tyranny of shoulds
 Acknowledgement of both mistake and successes
 Feminine psychology
o Did not agree with Freud’s understanding of women
o Did not believe in the Oedipus complex and it being sexual in nature
o Agreed that children can have conflict with parents, but it was not about sex, it
was more about dependence on parents and hostility toward parents
o Disagreed with penis envy
o Thought that its more likely that men had womb envy
 Men feel envy towards woman because they can bear children and have a
closer connection to their children than men do
o Freud’s response to Horney’s argument was that she had an unresolved Oedipus
complex