2. BIOGRAPHY OF KAREN HORNEY
Karen Danielsen Horney (“horn-eye”)
Born near Hamburg, Germany, on
September 15, 1885
One of the first women in that country
admitted to medical school.
She died in 1952 at age 67.
3. INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOANALYTIC
SOCIAL THEORY
Horney’s writings deal mostly with what
she called neuroses and neurotic
personalities, her theories are also
appropriate to normal development.
she placed far more emphasis on social
factors.
4. HORNEY AND FREUD COMPARED
She held that Freud’s explanations
result in a pessimistic view of humanity.
Horney criticized Freudian theory on at
least three accounts:
1. its rigidity toward new ideas,
2. objected to Freud’s idea on
feminine psychology
3.its overemphasis on biology and the
pleasure principle.
5. THE IMPORTANCE OF CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES
Neurotic conflict stems largely from
childhood traumas, most of which are
traced to a lack of genuine love.
6. Children who do not receive genuine
affection feel threatened and adopt rigid
behavioral patterns in an attempt to
gain love.
7. BASIC HOSTILITY AND BASIC ANXIETY
parents often
neglect, dominate, reject, or overindulge
their children, conditions that lead to
the child’s feelings of basic hostility
toward parents.
8. If children repress basic hostility, they
will develop feelings of insecurity and a
pervasive sense of apprehension called
basic anxiety.
9. 4 GENERAL WAYS THAT PEOPLE CAN PROTECT
THEMSELVES FROM BASIC ANXIETY :
1. affection,
2. submissiveness,
3. power or prestige
4. withdrawal.
10. NEUROTIC NEEDS
Horney identified 10 neurotic needs
that mark neurotic people in their
attempt to reduce basic anxiety:
11. 1. needs for affection and approval,
2. needs for a partner
3. needs to restrict one’s life within
narrow borders,
4. needs for power,
5. needs to exploit others,
12. 6. needs for social recognition or prestige,
7. needs for personal admiration,
8. needs for ambition and personal
achievement,
9. needs for self-sufficiency and
independence,
10. needs for perfection and
unassailability
13. NEUROTIC TRENDS
Later, Horney grouped these 10 neurotic
needs into three basic neurotic trends:
1. moving toward people
2.moving against people
3. moving away from people
14. Each of these trends can apply to both
normal and neurotic individuals in their
attempt to solve basic conflict.
However, whereas neurotic people are
compelled to follow only one neurotic
trend, normal individuals are sufficiently
flexible to adopt all three.
15. People who move neurotically toward
others adopt a compliant attitude in
order to protect themselves against
feelings of helplessness;
16. people who move against others do so
through aggressive behaviors that
protect them against perceived hostility
from others;
17. people who move away from others do so
in a detached manner that protects
them against feelings of isolation by
appearing arrogant and aloof.
