According to horney, there is a neurotic trend or need to move away from others. it best describes the _____ personality.

Terms in this set (91)Jung, like Freud, assumed that the mind, or psyche ____.has both conscious and unconscious aspectsAccording to Jung, a complex is ____.an emotionally toned conglomeration of associated ideasJung claimed that both archetypes and instincts ____.impel a person to actAccording to Jung, when a personal experience corresponds to alatent primordial image ____.an archetype is activatedThe first test of a person's courage, according to Jung, is to _____.anima

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Certain political and religious leaders rely on charisma and verbalpersuasions to influence multitudes of people. Jung would say thatthe "spell" these individuals cast over others might be due to the_____ archetype within peopleAccording to Jung, the achievement of consciousness by our distant

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ancestors is reflected in the hero's ____.conquest of darknessIn Jungian psychology, introverted thinking types ____.would react to external stimuli, but their interpretation of an eventwould be more important than the "facts"In Jung's theory, the process of actualizing the various componentsof personality best describes _____.According to Klein, the child's first model for interpersonal

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relations is the ____.According to Klein, the person or part of a person through which

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the aim of an instinct is satisfied is called ____.

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Klein believed that children introject their mother into their psychicstructure. This means that they ____.believe that their mother is inside their own bodyKlein's conception of a "position" is different from "stage ofdevelopment" in that "positions" are ____.

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What did Klein call the fantasy that one's own feelings actuallyreside in another person?____.

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includes fear of retaliation from parents for fantasies of emptyingtheir bodiesMahler's principal concern was with ____.According to Bowlby, both humans and other primates experience

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separation anxiety. The stage unique to humans is the ____ stage.An infant remains calm when her mother exits the room, leaving

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her with a stranger. When the mother returns, the infant ignoresher. According to Ainsworth, this infant is displaying the ____attachment styleanxious-avoidantHorney believed that children develop ____ as a reaction to unfilledneeds for love and affection.

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Karen Horney, Melanie Klein, The Unconscious,

Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory
Karen Danielsen Horney was born in Eilbek, a small town near Hamburg, Germany, on September 15, 1885. She was the only daughter of Berndt (Wackels) Danielsen, a sea captain, and Clothilda van Ronzelen Danielsen, a woman nearly 18 years younger than her husband. Karen was not a happy child. She resented the favored treatment given to her older brother, and in addition, she worried about the bitterness and discord between her parents. When she was 13, Horney decided to become a physician, but at that time no university in Germany admitted women. By the time she was 16, this situation had changed. In 1906, she entered the University of Freiburg, becoming one of the first women in Germany to study medicine. There she met Oskar Horney, a political science student. Early in 1910, she began an analysis with Karl Abraham, one of Freud’s close associates and a man who later analyzed Melanie Klein. In 1950, Horney published her most important work, Neurosis and Human Growth. This book sets forth theories that were no longer merely a reaction to Freud but rather were an expression of her own creative and independent thinking. After a short illness, Horney died of cancer on December 4, 1952. She was 65 years old.

Overview of Psychoanalytic Social Theory

The Psychoanalytic Social Theory of Karen Horney (pronounced Horn-eye) was built on the assumption that social and cultural conditions, especially childhood experiences, are largely responsible for shaping personality. People who do not have their needs for love and affection satisfied during childhood develop basic hostility toward their parents and, as a consequence, suffer from basic anxiety. Horney theorized that people combat basic anxiety by adopting one of three fundamental styles of relating to others: (1) moving toward people, (2) moving against people, or (3) moving away from people. Normal individuals may use any of these modes of relating to other people, but neurotics are compelled to rigidly rely on only one. Their compulsive behavior generates a basic intrapsychic conflict that may take the form of either an idealized self-image or self-hatred. The idealized self-image is expressed as (1) neurotic search for glory, (2) neurotic claims, or (3) neurotic pride. Self-hatred is expressed as either self-contempt or alienation from self.

Introduction to Psychoanalytic Social Theory
The early writings of Karen Horney, like those of Adler, Jung, and Klein, have a distinctive Freudian flavor.

Horney and Freud Compared
Horney criticized Freud’s theories on several accounts. First, she cautioned that strict adherence to orthodox psychoanalysis would lead to stagnation in both theoretical thought and therapeutic practice (Horney, 1937). Second, Horney (1937, 1939) objected to Freud’s ideas on feminine psychology, a subject we return to later. Third, she stressed the view that psychoanalysis should move beyond instinct theory and emphasize the importance of cultural influences in shaping personality. “Man is ruled not by the pleasure principle alone but by two guiding principles: safety and satisfaction” (Horney, 1939, p. 73). Similarly, she claimed that neuroses are not the result of instincts but rather of the person’s “attempt to find paths through a wilderness full of unknown dangers” (p. 10). This wilderness is created by society and not by instincts or anatomy.

Despite becoming increasingly critical of Freud, Horney continued to recognize his perceptive insights. Her main quarrel with Freud was not so much the accuracy of his observations but the validity of his interpretations. In general terms, she held that Freud’s explanations result in a pessimistic concept of humanity based on innate instincts and the stagnation of personality. In contrast, her view of humanity is an optimistic one and is centered on cultural forces that are amenable to change (Horney, 1950).

The Impact of Culture
Although Horney did not overlook the importance of genetic factors, she repeatedly emphasized cultural influences as the primary bases for both neurotic and normal personality development. Modern culture, she contended, is based on competition among individuals. “Everyone is a real or potential competitor of everyone else” (Horney, 1937, p. 284). Competitiveness and the basic hostility it spawns result in feelings of isolation. These feelings of being alone in a potentially hostile world lead to intensified needs for affection, which, in turn, cause people to overvalue love. As a result, many people see love and affection as the solution for all their problems.

The Importance of Childhood Experiences
Horney believed that neurotic conflict can stem from almost any developmental stage, but childhood is the age from which the vast majority of problems arise. Horney (1939) hypothesized that a difficult childhood is primarily responsible for neurotic needs. These needs become powerful because they are the child’s only means of gaining feelings of safety. Nevertheless, no single early experience is responsible for later personality. Horney cautioned that “the sum total of childhood experiences brings about a certain character structure, or rather, starts its development”

Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
Horney (1950) believed that each person begins life with the potential for healthy development, but like other living organisms, people need favorable conditions for growth.

A multitude of adverse influences may interfere with these favorable conditions. Primary among these is the parents’ inability or unwillingness to love their child. Because of their own neurotic needs, parents often dominate, neglect, overprotect, reject, or overindulge. If parents do not satisfy the child’s needs for safety and satisfaction, the child develops feelings of basic hostility toward the parents. However, children seldom overtly express this hostility as rage; instead, they repress their hostility toward their parents and have no awareness of it. Repressed hostility then leads to profound feelings of insecurity and a vague sense of apprehension.

This condition is called basic anxiety, which Horney (1950) defined as “a feeling of being isolated and helpless in a world conceived as potentially hostile”.

Horney (1937, p. 75) believed that basic hostility and basic anxiety are “inextricably interwoven.” Hostile impulses are the principal source of basic anxiety, but basic anxiety can also contribute to feelings of hostility. Although she later amended her list of defenses against basic anxiety, Horney (1937) originally identified four general ways that people protect themselves against this feeling of being alone in a potentially hostile world. The first is affection, a strategy that does not always lead to authentic love. In their search for affection, some people may try to purchase love with self-effacing compliance, material goods, or sexual favors.

The second protective device is submissiveness. Neurotics may submit themselves either to people or to institutions such as an organization or a religion. Neurotics who submit to another person often do so in order to gain affection. Neurotics may also try to protect themselves by striving for power, prestige, or possession. Power is a defense against the real or imagined hostility of others and takes the form of a tendency to dominate others; prestige is a protection against humiliation and is expressed as a tendency to humiliate others; possession acts as a buffer against destitution and poverty and manifests itself as a tendency to deprive others.

The fourth protective mechanism is withdrawal. Neurotics frequently protect themselves against basic anxiety either by developing an independence from others or by becoming emotionally detached from them. By psychologically withdrawing, neurotics feel that they cannot be hurt by other people.

Compulsive Drives
Neurotic individuals have the same problems that affect normal people, except neurotics experience them to a greater degree. Horney (1942) insisted that neurotics do not enjoy misery and suffering. They cannot change their behavior by free will but must continually and compulsively protect themselves against basic anxiety. This defensive strategy traps them in a vicious circle in which their compulsive needs to reduce basic anxiety lead to behaviors that perpetuate low self-esteem, generalized hostility, inappropriate striving for power, inflated feelings of superiority, and persistent apprehension, all of which result in more basic anxiety.

Neurotic Needs
Horney tentatively identified 10 categories of neurotic needs that characterize neurotics in their attempts to combat basic anxiety. These needs were more specific than the four protective devices discussed earlier, but they describe the same basic defensive strategies.

1. The neurotic need for affection and approval. In their quest for affection and approval, neurotics attempt indiscriminately to please others. They try to live up to the expectations of others, tend to dread self-assertion, and are quite uncomfortable with the hostility of others as well as the hostile feelings within themselves.

2. The neurotic need for a powerful partner. Lacking self-confidence, neurotics try to attach themselves to a powerful partner. This need includes an overvaluation of love and a dread of being alone or deserted. Horney’s own life story reveals a strong need to relate to a great man, and she had a series of such relationships during her adult life.

3. The neurotic need to restrict one’s life within narrow borders. Neurotics frequently strive to remain inconspicuous, to take second place, and to be content with very little. They downgrade their own abilities and dread making demands on others.

4. The neurotic need for power. Power and affection are perhaps the two greatest neurotic needs. The need for power is usually combined with the needs for prestige and possession and manifests itself as the need to control others and to avoid feelings of weakness or stupidity.

5. The neurotic need to exploit others. Neurotics frequently evaluate others on the basis of how they can be used or exploited, but at the same time, they fear being exploited by others.

6. The neurotic need for social recognition or prestige. Some people combat basic anxiety by trying to be first, to be important, or to attract attention to themselves.

7. The neurotic need for personal admiration. Neurotics have a need to be admired for what they are rather than for what they possess. Their inflated self-esteem must be continually fed by the admiration and approval of others.

8. The neurotic need for ambition and personal achievement. Neurotics often have a strong drive to be the best—the best salesperson, the best bowler, the best lover. They must defeat other people in order to confirm their superiority.

9. The neurotic need for self-sufficiency and independence. Many neurotics have a strong need to move away from people, thereby proving that they can get along without others. The playboy who cannot be tied down by any woman exemplifies this neurotic need.

10. The neurotic need for perfection and unassailability. By striving relentlessly for perfection, neurotics receive “proof” of their self-esteem and personal superiority. They dread making mistakes and having personal flaws, and they desperately attempt to hide their weaknesses from others.

Neurotic Trends
As her theory evolved, Horney began to see that the list of 10 neurotic needs could be grouped into three general categories, each relating to a person’s basic attitude toward self and others. In 1945, she identified the three basic attitudes, or neurotic trends, as (1) moving toward people, (2) moving against people, and (3) moving away from people.

People can use each of the neurotic trends to solve basic conflict, but unfortunately, these solutions are essentially nonproductive or neurotic. Horney (1950) used the term basic conflict because very young children are driven in all three directions—toward, against, and away from people.

In healthy children, these three drives are not necessarily incompatible. But the feelings of isolation and helplessness that Horney described as basic anxiety drive some children to act compulsively, thereby limiting their repertoire to a single neurotic trend. Experiencing basically contradictory attitudes toward others, these children attempt to solve this basic conflict by making one of the three neurotic trends consistently dominant. Some children move toward people by behaving in a compliant manner as a protection against feelings of helplessness; other children move against people with acts of aggression in order to circumvent the hostility of others; and still other children move away from people by adopting a detached manner, thus alleviating feelings of isolation (Horney, 1945).

Moving Toward People
Horney’s concept of moving toward people does not mean moving toward them in the spirit of genuine love. Rather, it refers to a neurotic need to protect oneself against feelings of helplessness.

Moving Against People
Just as compliant people assume that everyone is nice, aggressive people take for granted that everyone is hostile. As a result, they adopt the strategy of moving against people. Neurotically aggressive people are just as compulsive as compliant people are, and their behavior is just as much prompted by basic anxiety. Rather than moving toward people in a posture of submissiveness and dependence, these people move against others by appearing tough or ruthless. They are motivated by a strong need to exploit others and to use them for their own benefit. They seldom admit their mistakes and are compulsively driven to appear perfect, powerful, and superior.

Moving Away From People
In order to solve the basic conflict of isolation, some people behave in a detached manner and adopt a neurotic trend of moving away from people. This strategy is an expression of needs for privacy, independence, and self-sufficiency. Again, each of these needs can lead to positive behaviors, with some people satisfying these needs in a healthy fashion. However, these needs become neurotic when people try to satisfy them by compulsively putting emotional distance between themselves and other people.

In summary, each of the three neurotic trends has an analogous set of characteristics that describe normal individuals. In addition, each of 10 neurotic needs can be easily placed within the three neurotic trends. Table 6.1 summarizes the three neurotic trends, the basic conflicts that give rise to them, the outstanding characteristics of each, the 10 neurotic needs that compose them, and the three analogous traits that characterize normal people.

Intrapsychic Conflicts
The neurotic trends flow from basic anxiety, which in turn, stems from a child’s relationships with other people. Horney did not neglect the impact of intrapsychic factors in the development of personality. As her theory evolved, she began to place greater emphasis on the inner conflicts that both normal and neurotic individuals experience.

Intrapsychic processes originate from interpersonal experiences; but as they become part of a person’s belief system, they develop a life of their own—an existence separate from the interpersonal conflicts that gave them life. This section looks at two important intrapsychic conflicts: the idealized selfimage and self-hatred. Briefly, the idealized self-image is an attempt to solve conflicts by painting a godlike picture of oneself. Self-hatred is an interrelated yet equally irrational and powerful tendency to despise one’s real self.

The Idealized Self-Image
Horney believed that human beings, if given an environment of discipline and warmth, will develop feelings of security and self-confidence and a tendency to move toward self-realization.

Feeling alienated from themselves, people need desperately to acquire a stable sense of identity. This dilemma can be solved only by creating an idealized self-image, an extravagantly positive view of themselves that exists only in their personal belief system. As the idealized self-image becomes solidified, neurotics begin to believe in the reality of that image. Horney (1950) recognized three aspects of the idealized image: (1) the neurotic search for glory, (2) neurotic claims, and (3) neurotic pride.

-The Neurotic Search for Glory
As neurotics come to believe in the reality of their idealized self, they begin to incorporate it into all aspects of their lives—their goals, their self-concept, and their relations with others. Horney (1950) referred to this comprehensive drive toward actualizing the ideal self as the neurotic search for glory.

In addition to self-idealization, the neurotic search for glory includes three other elements: the need for perfection, neurotic ambition, and the drive toward a vindictive triumph. The need for perfection refers to the drive to mold the whole personality into the idealized self. Neurotics are not content to merely make a few alterations; nothing short of complete perfection is acceptable. They try to achieve perfection by erecting a complex set of “shoulds” and “should nots.” Horney (1950) referred to this drive as the tyranny of the should.

A second key element in the neurotic search for glory is neurotic ambition, that is, the compulsive drive toward superiority.

The third aspect of the neurotic search for glory is the drive toward a vindictive triumph, the most destructive element of all. The need for a vindictive triumph may be disguised as a drive for achievement or success, but “its chief aim is to put others to shame or defeat them through one’s very success; or to attain the power. . . to inflict suffering on them—mostly of a humiliating kind” (Horney, 1950, p. 27).

-Neurotic Claims
A second aspect of the idealized image is neurotic claims. In their search for glory, neurotics build a fantasy world—a world that is out of sync with the real world. Believing that something is wrong with the outside world, they proclaim that they are special and therefore entitled to be treated in accordance with their idealized view of themselves. Because these demands are very much in accord with their idealized self-image, they fail to see that their claims of special privilege are unreasonable.

-Neurotic Pride
The third aspect of an idealized image is neurotic pride, a false pride based not on a realistic view of the true self but on a spurious image of the idealized self. Neurotic pride is qualitatively different from healthy pride or realistic self-esteem.

Genuine self-esteem is based on realistic attributes and accomplishments and is generally expressed with quiet dignity. Neurotic pride, on the other hand, is based on an idealized image of self and is usually loudly proclaimed in order to protect and support a glorified view of one’s self (Horney, 1950).

Self-Hatred
People with a neurotic search for glory can never be happy with themselves because when they realize that their real self does not match the insatiable demands of their idealized self, they will begin to hate and despise themselves Horney (1950) recognized six major ways in which people express self-hatred.

First, self-hatred may result in relentless demands on the self, which are exemplified by the tyranny of the ‘should’. For example, some people make demands on themselves that don’t stop even when they achieve a measure of success. These people continue to push themselves toward perfection because they believe they should be perfect.

The second mode of expressing self-hatred is merciless self-accusation. Neurotics constantly berate themselves. “If people only knew me, they would realize that I’m pretending to be knowledgeable, competent, and sincere. I’m really a fraud, but no one knows it but me.” Self-accusation may take a variety of forms—from obviously grandiose expressions, such as taking responsibility for natural disasters, to scrupulously questioning the virtue of their own motivations.

Third, self-hatred may take the form of self-contempt, which might be expressed as belittling, disparaging, doubting, discrediting, and ridiculing oneself. Self-contempt prevents people from striving for improvement or achievement. A young man may say to himself, “You conceited idiot! What makes you think you can get a date with the best-looking woman in town?” A woman may attribute her successful career to “luck.” Although these people may be aware of their behavior, they have no perception of the self-hatred that motivates it.

A fourth expression of self-hatred is self-frustration. Horney (1950) distinguished between healthy self-discipline and neurotic self-frustration. The former involves postponing or forgoing pleasurable activities in order to achieve reasonable goals. Self-frustration stems from self-hatred and is designed to actualize an inflated self-image. Neurotics are frequently shackled by taboos against enjoyment. “I don’t deserve a new car.” “I must not wear nice clothes because many people around the world are in rags.” “I must not strive for a better job because I’m not good enough for it.”

Fifth, self-hatred may be manifested as self-torment, or self-torture. Although self-torment can exist in each of the other forms of self-hatred, it becomes a separate category when people’s main intention is to inflict harm or suffering on themselves. Some people attain masochistic satisfaction by anguishing over a decision, exaggerating the pain of a headache, cutting themselves with a knife, starting a fight that they are sure to lose, or inviting physical abuse.

The sixth and final form of self-hatred is self-destructive actions and impulses, which may be physical or psychological, conscious or unconscious, acute or chronic, carried out in action or enacted only in the imagination.

Feminine Psychology
As a woman trained in the promasculine psychology of Freud, Horney gradually realized that the traditional psychoanalytic view of women was skewed. She then set forth her own theory, one that rejected several of Freud’s basic ideas.

For Horney, psychic differences between men and women are not the result of anatomy but rather of cultural and social expectations. Although Horney (1939) recognized the existence of the Oedipus complex, she insisted that it was due to certain environmental conditions and not to biology. If it were the result of anatomy, as Freud contended, then it would be universal (as Freud indeed believed). However, Horney (1967) saw no evidence for a universal Oedipus complex. Instead, she held that it is found only in some people and is an expression of the neurotic need for love. The neurotic need for affection and the neurotic need for aggression usually begin in childhood and are two of the three basic neurotic trends. A child may passionately cling to one parent and express jealousy toward the other, but these behaviors are means of alleviating basic anxiety and not manifestations of an anatomically based Oedipus complex. Even when there is a sexual aspect to these behaviors, the child’s main goal is security, not sexual intercourse.

Horney (1939) found the concept of penis envy even less tenable. She contended that here is no more anatomical reason why girls should be envious of the penis than boys should desire a breast or a womb. In fact, boys sometimes do express a desire to have a baby, but this desire is not the result of a universal male “womb envy.”

Horney agreed with Adler that many women possess a masculine protest; that is, they have a pathological belief that men are superior to women.

Psychotherapy
Horney believed that neuroses grow out of basic conflict that usually begins in childhood. The general goal of Horneyian therapy is to help patients gradually grow in the direction of self-realization. More specifically, the aim is to have patients give up their idealized self-image, relinquish their neurotic search for glory, and change self-hatred to an acceptance of the real self.

The therapist’s task is to convince patients that their present solutions are perpetuating rather than alleviating the core neurosis, a task that takes much time and hard work.

As to techniques, Horneyian therapists use many of the same ones employed by Freudian therapists, especially dream interpretation and free association. Horney saw dreams as attempts to solve conflicts, but the solutions can be either neurotic or healthy.

With the second major technique, free association, patients are asked to say everything that comes to mind regardless of how trivial or embarrassing it may seem (Horney, 1987). They are also encouraged to express whatever feelings may arise from the associations. As with dream interpretation, free association eventually reveals patients’ idealized self-image and persistent but unsuccessful attempts at accomplishing it.

·         Horney’s psychoanalytic social theory is rated slightly higher on free choice than on determinism.

·         Horney’s theory is somewhat more optimistic than pessimistic. Horney believed that people possess inherent curative powers that lead them toward self-realization.

·         On the dimension of causality versus teleology, Horney adopted a middle position. She stated that the natural goal for people is self-realization, but she also believed that childhood experiences can block that movement.

·         Although Horney adopted a middle stance regarding conscious versus unconscious motivation, she believed that most people have only limited awareness of their motives.

·         Horney’s concept of personality strongly emphasized social influences more than biological ones.

·         Because Horney’s theory looks almost exclusively at neuroses, it tends to highlight similarities among people more than uniqueness.

·         Horney’s theory falls short on its power both to generate research and to submit to the criterion of falsifiability. Speculations from the theory do not easily yield testable hypotheses and therefore lack both verifiability and falsifiability.

·         Because her theory deals mostly with neurotics, it is rated high on its ability to organize knowledge of neurotics but very low on its capacity to explain what is known about people in general.

·         The theory is not specific enough to give the practitioner a clear and detailed course of action. On this criterion, the theory receives a low rating.