Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory

Psychology of Personality

Lecture, Chapter 6

Overview of Psychoanalytic Social Theory

lHorney’s theory was built on the assumption that social and cultural conditions and childhood experiences are responsible for shaping personality.

lNot having one’s emotional needs met during childhood leads to basic hostility toward parents which, in turn, leads to basic anxiety.

lAnxiety is mitigated by moving toward, away from, or against people, but using only one method leads to neurosis.

lCompulsive behavior of neurotics leads to idealized self-image or self-hatred

¡Neurotic search for glory, neurotic claims, and neurotic pride characterize the idealized self-image.

¡Self-contempt or alienation from self characterize self-hatred.

lHorney’s theory focuses mostly on neurotic personality, but many ideas are applicable to healthy personalities as well.

Horney’s Life

lKaren Danielsen Horney was born in Eilbek, German as the youngest of 2 children by her mother and 6 children by her father.

lKaren idolized her mother but resented her father and self-siblings for “turning against her mother.”

lAs an adult, Karen had several affairs during her marriage, which separated and eventually ended in divorce.

lAfter her divorce, Karen continued to have extramarital affairs with men in her “compulsive need to merge with a great man.”

lHorney diverged from early psychoanalytic theory’s emphasis on instinct by placing more emphasis on ego and social influences.

Introduction to Psychoanalytic Social Theory

lHorney criticized Freud in 3 ways

lImpact of Culture – Modern culture is based on competitiveness, and resulting isolation leads to needs for affection; Western culture spans contradictions:

lImportance of Childhood Experience – traumatic events such as sexual abuse, beatings, open rejections, or pervasive neglect result from lack of genuine warmth and affection.

Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety

lAll humans are presumed to have the potential for healthy development but need favorable conditions, such as warm and disciplined love, to do so.

lIf parents fail to meet children’s needs for safety and satisfaction, children may develop basic hostility, or repressed rage, toward parents.

lRepressed hostility leads to basic anxiety, or profound feelings of insecurity.

lBasic anxiety can become unhealthy when people rely on defense mechanisms (affection, submissiveness, power/prestige/possession, and withdrawal) solely to cope.

Compulsive Drives

Neurotic needs:

lAffection and approval

lPowerful partner

lRestrict one’s life within boundaries

lPower

lExploit others

lSocial recognition or prestige

lPersonal admiration

lAmbition and personal achievement

lSelf-sufficiency and independence

lPerfection and unassailability

lNeurotic trends: moving toward people, moving against people, and moving away from people

  lNormal defenses involve spontaneous movement

  lNeurotic defenses involve compulsive movement

Intrapsychic Conflicts

lIdealized self-image – when people’s early experiences impede their tendency toward self-realization, they may attempt to develop a sense of identity by idealizing themselves.

lSelf-hatred – the realization that their idealized self is not real, resulting in relentless demands on self, merciless self-accusation, self-contempt, self-frustration, self-torment, and self-destructive actions.

Feminine Psychology

lMen’s need to subjugate woman and women’s wish to humiliate men is a result of basic anxiety.

lOedipus complex may exist in some children as a result of a need for security, rejecting biology as the source.

lNo basis for the concept penis envy.

lMasculine protest is a result of a wish for qualities our culture identifies as masculine, not of penis envy.

lOnly by developing our full potential as humans can we truly understand gender differences.

Psychotherapy

lGoal: minimize self-hate.

lPurpose: to convince patients of their neuroses.

ldream analysis and free association.

lSuccessful therapy results in patients’ clearer understandings of their feelings, beliefs, and wishes, relating to others with genuine feelings rather than attempts to solve basic conflicts, and working from interest in the job itself rather than as a means to perpetuate neurotic search for glory.

Conclusion

lDid Horney use science in her theory development? Was her theory able to generate research, be falsified, organize data, guide action, be internally consistent, and be parsimonious?

lWhere does Psychoanalytic Social Theory fall on the basic issues concerning the nature of humanity?

¡Determinism vs. free choice

¡Pessimism vs. optimism

¡Causality vs. teleology

¡Conscious vs. unconscious

¡Social vs. biological influences

¡Uniqueness vs. similarities