KAREN DANIELSON HORNEY

KAREN DANIELSON HORNEY 16 September 1885 – 4 December 1952

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

The Life of Horney

Born in 1885 near Hamburg, Germany.  Her father, Berndt Wackels Danielsen (1836–

1910), was a ship's captain, a traditional devout with a patriarchal thinking (his children nicknamed him "the Bible-thrower").

Her mother, Clotilde, née van Ronzelen (1853–1911), known as "Sonni", was very different, being much more open-minded than Berndt.

 In 1906, Karen entered medical school -The University of Freiburg was in fact one of the first institutions throughout Germany to enroll women in medical courses.

In 1909 she married to Oscar Horney, a Berlin lawyer.

They were divorced in 1937 as a result of different concerns, and her increased involvement in the psychoanalytic movement.

In 1932 she was invited to come to the United States and assume the position of associate director of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute.

In 1934 she moved to New Yyticork City, opened a private practice, and taught at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.

 In 1937 she published the book The Neurotic Personality of Our Time, which had wide popular readership.

 By 1941, Horney was Dean of the American Institute of Psychoanalysis, a training institute for those who were interested in Horney's own organization the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.

She also founded a journal, named the American Journal of Psychoanalysis.

She taught at the New York Medical College and continued practicing as a psychiatrist until her death in 1952.

BASIC ANXIETY( early childhood development) Genuine love and healthy discipline is

necessary to establish feelings of safety and satisfaction.

If these needs are not met, the child develops basic hostility toward the parents.

This repressed hostility leads to basic anxiety: a feeling of helplessness and isolation in a hostile world.

Basic Anxiety can lead to neurosis, but not necessarily.

Horney believed that social forces in childhood, not biological forces, influence personality development.

She insist that the social relationship between the child and his or her parents is the key factor of personality development.

In childhood we try to protect ourselves against basic anxiety in four ways:

a. Securing affection and loveb. Being submissivec. Attaining powerd. Withdrawing

SECURING AFFECTION AND LOVE

There are several ways by which we may gain affection, such as trying to do whatever the other person wants, trying to bribe others, or threatening others into providing them the desired affection.

EXAMPLE: “If you love me, you will not hurt me.”

BEING SUBMISSIVE

Being submissive as means of self – protection involves complying with the wishes either of one particular person or of everyone in our social environment.

EXAMPLE: “If I give in, I will not be hurt.”

ATTAINING POWER

By attaining power over others, a person can compensate for helplessness and achieve security through success or through a sense of superiority.

EXAMPLE: Such persons seem to believe that if they power , no one will harm them.

WITHDRAWING

Such people attempts to become independent of others, not relying on anyone else for the satisfaction of internal or external needs.

The withdrawn person achieves independence with regard to internal or psychological needs by becoming aloof from others, no longer seeking them out to satisfy emotional needs.

NEUROTIC NEEDS & TRENDS

Neurotic needs – irrational defences against anxiety a permanent part of personality and that affect behaviour.

The 10 neurotic needs are as follows:1. Affection and approval2. A dominant partner3. Power4. Exploitation5. Prestige6. Admiration7. Achievement or ambition8. Self – sufficiency9. Perfection10. Narrow limits to life

NEEDS TRENDS

AFFECTION & APPROVAL A DOMINANT PARTNER

MOVING TOWARD THE PEOPLE( the compliant personality )

POWEREXPLOITATIONPRESTIGE ADMIRATIONACHIEVEMENT

MOVING AGAINST THE PEOPLE( the aggressive personality )

SELF-SUFFICIENCYPERFECTIONNARROW LIMITS TO LIFE

MOVING AWAY FROM PEOPLE( the detached personality )

THE COMPLIANT PERSONALITY

The compliant personality displays attitudes and behaviours that reflect a desire to move toward other people ; an intense and continuous need for affection and approval, an urge to be loved, wanted, and protected.

Compliant personalities manipulate other people, particularly their partners, to achieve their goals. They often behave in ways others find attractive or endearing.

The source of these behaviour is the person’s repressed hostility.

THE AGGRESSIVE PERSONALITY

They act tough and domineering and have no regard for others.

To achieve the control and superiority so vital to their lives, they must consistently perform at a high level. By excelling and receiving recognition, they find satisfaction in having their superiority affirmed by others.

Aggressive personalities may appear of their abilities and uninhibited in asserting and defending themselves.

THE DETACHED PERSONALITY

People described as a detached personalities are driven to move away from other people and maintain distance. They must not love, hate, or cooperate with others or become self – sufficient.

Their need for independence makes them sensitive to any attempt to influence, coerce, or obligate them.

They need to feel superior, but not in the same way aggressive personalities do.

Detached personalities suppress or deny all feelings toward other people, particularly feelings of love and hate.

MOVING TOWARD PEOPLE These neurotics see themselves as loving,

generous, unselfish, and sensitive. They often take a subordinate role, see others as more intelligent and capable, and their own self image is often only a reflection of how other people see them.

MOVING AGAINST PEOPLE These neurotic individuals want to be tough

or ruthless. Seldom admit mistakes and see themselves as being powerful and superior. Seek to dominate others within relationships.

MOVING AWAY FORM PEOPLE:These neurotics have a heightened need for

privacy, independence, and self-sufficiency. Can often appear to be aloof and unapproachable, and feel discomfort in most social situations.

THE IDEALIZED SELF - IMAGE

The idealized self-image: The difference between who you are and who you think you are.

To protect ourselves from feelings of isolation and inferiority, we generate a favorable mental concept of who we are.

This idealized self image is dependent on the neurotic trend adapted by the individual

Compliant People (toward) : See themselves as good and saintly.Aggressive People (against): See themselves as strong and heroic.Detached People (away): See themselves as self-reliant and wise.

AN IDEALIZED SELF-IMAGE HAS THREE ASPECTS

Neurotic Claims : Neurotics believe they have special privileges in life and become extremely frustrated when their wishes are not granted.

Neurotic Pride: A false pride based upon your idealized self-image Neurotic individuals avoid people who dont "recognize" the innate superiority of the Neurotic individual.

Neurotic Search for Glory :

Self-idealization: The drive to make the idealized self-image real

Need For Perfection: in order to achieve the idealized self-image, the neurotic falls prey to the Tyranny of the Should.

Neurotic Ambition: the compulsive drive toward superiority

Drive for Vindictive Triumph: Neurotics want to show their superiority over others, and prefer to do it in a way which can cause humiliation of others.

FEMININE PSYCHOLOGY

Womb Envy Horney countered these idea by arguing

that men envied women because of their capacity for motherhood.

Receives a most surprising impression of the intensity of this envy of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood.

THE FLIGHT FROM WOMANHOOD

As a result of these feelings of inferiority, women may choose to deny their femininity and to wish, unconsciously, that they were men.

This is referred as the flight from womanhood, a condition that can lead to sexual inhibitions.

With this, women distrust and resent men and reject their sexual advances.

CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON FEMININE PSYCHOLOGY

Horney recognized the impact of social and cultural forces on the development of personality.

She also recognized that the different culture and social groups view women’s roles in different ways.

Horney’s position that the feminine psyche is influenced, even determined, by cultural forces.

ASSESSMENT IN HORNEY’S THEORY

The methods used to assess the functioning of the human personality were essentially those favoured by Freud - free association and dream analysis – but with some modification.

She suggested that analysis should be an “exquisitely cooperative enterprise” between patient and therapist.

Through free association, the analyst gradually uncovered the patient’s early experiences and emotion, similar to peeling the layers of an onion.

Horney also believed that dream analysis could reveal a person’s true self, and that dreams represented attempts to solve problems, in either a constructive or a neurotic way.

She concluded that the “safest clue to the understanding of the dream is in the feelings of the patient as he has them in the dream”.

THANK YOU PO TANATE, LARRY JR. NOLASCO BSSW