Chapter 6
Karen Horney
- Interested in psychoanalysis.
- Concluded:
- That behaviour is shaped more by a person’s culture rather than by biology or
sexuality.
- When conflict arises, look to the interaction between the person and their
environment rather than opposing forces in the personality.
- Each culture generates its own fears.
The view of the person underlying the theory
- Horney has an opitimistic view of humanity → personality inherently tends
towards constructive development and growth. (Inherent growth principle
replaces Freud’s id).
- Horney’s views regarding personality and psychotherapy are based on the supposition
that people have an inherent drive and capacity to grow and realise their potential to
the fullest.
- Believes that people's inherent nature is constructive (like Adler believes, not like Freud).
- People can shape & change their personality.
- Rejects Freudian notion that human behaviour is determined by instinct. She believes
that every person has the potential to achieve self-actualisation.
The Structure of the personality
➔ Horney believes it NB to understand the psychodynamics of the personality.
➔ Three selves:
◆ Idealised self: product of feeling inferior. Common in societies that place high
value on prestige & competition. Unconsciously created in an attempt to deal with
anxiety & to compensate for the feeling of inferiority. A superior image of
themself.
◆ Actual self: Represents a person as they consciously act daily. Rejected by the
idealised self as it often does not meet its demands.
◆ Real self: Emerges once the person has given up all techniques for dealing with
anxiety & resolving conflict. Urges the person to grow and be self-fulfilled. “Alive,
unique, personal centre of ourselves”.
The Dynamics of the personality
, ➔ Growth principle → All energy is naturally channelled in a way to ensure that the
individual will develop to their full potential.
➔ This energy can be blocked by ‘anti-natural’ influences → parents, culture,
etc.
➔ People’s development can be hampered by their interaction with the environment.
A person’s basic needs according to Horney:
- The need for security or safety → to free from threat or anxiety.
- The need for satisfaction → satisfaction of physiological needs- food, sex, etc.
At first, a child is dependent on their parents and environment for the satisfaction of physical &
psychological needs. This dependence may lead to neurosis or feelings of inferiority.
What inhibits growth according to Horney?
➔ When parents act with real love & warmth, they create an atmosphere in which needs
can be satisfied & growth can take place.
◆ Genuine interest in the child, respect, warmth, reliability, etc.
➔ Parents irresponsibility & ‘neuroticising cultural influences’ (conflicting cultural values)
may prevent the fulfillment of needs.
What happens if need-fulfilment is hampered / prevented?
➔ Leads to basic hostility & basic anxiety:
◆ Basic hostility: Result of child’s conflicting experiences in interaction
with the environment → they are psychologically & physically
dependent on the environment but feel the environment is hostile (if
needs for warmth & love aren’t met). → the world is out to cheat, betray,
humiliate.
◆ Basic anxiety: Persuasive feeling of helplessness experienced when a
child is unable to cope with the environment. → Feeling lonely, helpless in
a hostile world.
➔ Factors in parent-child relationships that give rise to hostility & anxiety: indifference, lack
of respect, lack of guidance, unreliable warmth, having to take sides of parents in
arguments.
➔ Culture-specific factors: Western culture of the 20th century promotes neurosis (such as
the adherence to conflicting values).
How do people deal with basic hostility & anxiety?
● Both are repressed and unconscious.
● Initially believed to be manifested as neurotic needs → later linked to
reactions or relations to others, constituting a interpersonal style.
, ○ Interpersonal styles are a means of coping with basic hostility & anxiety. There
are 3 styles.
● This took Horney away from Freuds intrapsychic principles.
Interpersonal styles
Movement towards others:
Submissive, compliant type.
➔ In healthy development people move towards other people in a cooperative &
affectionate way.
➔ If excessive & fixated, they acknowledge their helplessness and seek affection &
permanent support from these people.
➔ Usually individuals who have been brought up in their demanding parent’s' shadow.
➔ Their philosophy → if I am submissive then I can’t get hurt.
➔ Described as:
Needs to be liked, wanted, desired, loved, to feel accepted, welcomed, approved of,
appreciated, needed, to be important to others, to be helped, protected, taken care of, guided.
Movement against others:
Hostile aggressive type
➔ In normal development, moving against people can be seen as assertiveness & an
ability to argue and differ.
➔ If excessive & fixated, they don’t accept their separateness & take it as axiomatic that
hostility must be met with hostility.
➔ Mistrust others intentions, obsessed with power, prestige, personal achievement &
exploitation of others.
➔ Their philosophy → If I have power, no one can hurt me. What can I get out of
this situation?
➔ Described:
They have an expansionist interpersonal style & as seeking to dominate others & seek to
achieve their own goals at all costs.
→ 3 expansionist types:
● Narcissistic type: Great self-confidence, expect others to return their favours with
interest.
● Perfectionist type: Believe their abilities are superior, blame mistakes on others
incompetence.
● Arrogant / vengeful type: Highly competitive, love to out-manoeuvre people.
, Movement away from others:
Detached, aloof
➔ Want to avoid being dependent on others, but have no wish to be hostile.
➔ Occurs when the demands of the environment are too great
➔ Feel threatened and cut out.
➔ Are secretive about their lives, prefer to work, eat & sleep alone to prevent disturbance
by others, avoid relationships, enjoy solitude.
➔ Their philosophy → If I withdraw, no one will be able to hurt me.
➔ Described:
To put emotional distance between themselves and others. Unconscious and conscious
determination to not get emotionally involved with others in any way (love, fight, cooperation,
competition). They form an impenetrable bubble around themselves.
➔ This is potentially the most destructive interpersonal style & its extreme form is found in
psychotic behaviour.
The development of the personality
➔ Disagrees with Freud’s ‘Oedipus complex’, ‘penis envy’, and ‘female masochism’.
➔ Horney accepts the conflict between a child and its parents but does not relate it to a
sexual origin.
➔ Horney relates this conflict to the basic anxiety of being dependent on parents & the
need to be independent → oedipal feelings are interpreted via the interaction
between child & parents.
➔ Horney rejects Freud’s idea of penis envy & the association of masochism with
femaleness.
➔ According to Freud → female is sexually passive by nature & this compels her
to suppress her aggressiveness. He said that the sexual act and the birth
process are masochistic experiences because they combine pleasure and
pain.
➔ Horney maintains that such sex roles are culturally induced, views like Freud’s lower
women’s self respect and equality.
➔ Horney developed womb envy → The male equivalent to penis envy in women,
where a man feels this envy towards a woman because he is unable to bear
children.
➔ Men put women down and make them seem inferior due to their underlying womb envy.
Optimal development and views on psychopathology
