Chapter 6: Psychoanalytic Social Theory by Karen Horney PDF

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Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng MaynilaChapter 6: Karen Horney‘s Psychoanalytic Social TheoryEspiritu, Shiella Mae Futalan, Joaquin Vince Rodriguez, Jenna Marie Tinio, Josette Joyce Vallejo, Daniella SophiaTheories of Personality - PSY 2103 Prof. Joseph G. Marquez, RPsy, RPm November 2020Overview of the Ps...

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Chapter 6: Horney‘s Psychoanalytic Social Theory Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

Chapter 6: Karen Horney‘s Psychoanalytic Social Theory

Espiritu, Shiella Mae Futalan, Joaquin Vince Rodriguez, Jenna Marie Tinio, Josette Joyce Vallejo, Daniella Sophia

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Chapter 6: Horney‘s Psychoanalytic Social Theory Theories of Personality - PSY 2103 Prof. Joseph G. Marquez, RPsy, RPm November 2020

Overview of the Psychoanalytic Social Theory Written by Josette Joyce Tinio • Psychoanalytic Social Theory was built on the assumption that social and cultural conditions, and childhood experiences, are largely responsible for shaping personality The theory‘s overview: 1. 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. 2. To combat anxiety, people adapt one of the three fundamental styles:

•Moving toward people •Moving against people •Moving away from people • Normal individuals may use any of these modes of relating to other people but neurotics are compelled to only one.

• Compulsive behavior generates a basic intrapsychic conflict that may take the form of an idealized selfimage or self-hatred. • Intrapsychic conflict -the clash of opposing forces within the psyche, such as conflicting drives, wishes, or agencies. Also called inner conflict; internal conflict; intrapersonal conflict; psychic conflict. Idealized Self-image Self-hatred 1. Neurotic search for glory Self-contempt 2. Neurotic claims Alienation from self 3. Neurotic pride • Horney‘s views on personality are reflection of her life experiences, derived from her efforts to relieve her own pain and her patients.

Biography of Karen Horney Written by Josette Joyce Tinio • Karen Danielsen - Horney was a German psychoanalyst, born on 15 September 1885 in Eilbek, Hamburg, Germany and was the only daughter of Berndt Wackels Danielsen and Clothilda van Ronzelen Danielsen.

• Her father had been married earlier and had four other children. She was in an unhappy family and had a difficult childhood because of her father, thus, feeling great hostility towards him. However, she idolized her mother for supporting and protecting her against her father. • In 1906, she studied medicine in the University of Freiburg in Germany where she met Oskar Horney who was studying political science. In 1909, they got married, gave birth to three daughters, but separated in 1938. • In 1910, she began an analysis with Karl Abraham.

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Chapter 6: Horney‘s Psychoanalytic Social Theory

• In 1917, she wrote her first paper on psychoanalysis, ―The Techniques of Psychoanalytic Therapy‖ which reflected the orthodox Freudian view and gave little indication of her subsequent independent thinking • In 1915, she received her MD degree after 5 years of psychoanalysis. She believed that culture was responsible for psychic differences between men and women, in which Freud negatively reacted. • In 1932, she left Germany to be an associate director at Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute and several other factors.

• In 1934, she moved to New York to tea ch in New School for Social Research. There she became a member of a Zodiac group that included Fromm, Fromm-Reichmann, Sullivan, and others. She was also a member of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute but seldom agreed with the members‘ ideas. • In 1939, she wrote the book ―New Ways in Psychoanalysis‖ which called for abandoning the instinct theory, placing more emphasis on ego and social influences. • In 1941, she resigned from the institute over issues of dogma and orthodoxy and helped form a rival organization - the Association of the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (AAP) • In 1943, she resigned from AAP. The AAP soon became Karen Horney Psychoanalytic Institute. • In 1950, she published the ―Neurosis and Human Growth‖ where the theories were no longer a reaction to Freud‘s views but an expression of her own creative and independent thinking. • In 1952, Horney established the Karen Horney Clinic.

• In 4 December 1952, she died of cancer at the age of 65 years old. Introduction to Psychoanalytic Social Theory Written by Josette Joyce Tinio • She became disenchanted with orthodox psychoanalysis and constructed a revisionist theory that reflected her own personal experiences—clinical and otherwise. • Her works suggest such that is appropriate to normal, healthy development. • Culture plays a leading role in shaping human personality, either neurotic or healthy. • She agreed with Freud that early childhood traumas are important, however, social rather than biological forces are paramount in personality development. Horney and Freud Compared Horney‘s criticisms of Freud‘s theories: 1. Strict adherence to orthodox psychoanalysis would lead to stagnation in both theoretical thought and therapeutic practice 2. Objection to Freud‘s ideas on feminine psychology 3. Psychoanalysis should move beyond instinct theory and emphasize the importance of cultural influences in shaping personality • Her main quarrel with Freud was not so much the accuracy of his observations but the validity of his interpretations

• She held that Freud‘s explanations result in a pessimistic concept of humanity based on innate instincts and the stagnation of personality.

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Chapter 6: Horney‘s Psychoanalytic Social Theory

• Her view of humanity is optimistic and is centered on cultural forces that are amenable to change.

The Impact of Culture • Cultural influences are the primary bases for both neurotic and normal personality development. Modern culture is based on competition among individuals. Competitiveness and the basic hostility it creates result in feelings of isolation. • The feeling of being alone leads to intensified need for affection, which causes people to overvalue love. As a result, many people see love and affection as the solution for all their problems. • Genuine love can be a healthy, growth-producing experience but desperate need for love provides a fertile ground for the development of neuroses. Rather than benefitting from that need, neurotics strive in pathological ways to find it. Their self-defeating attempts result in low selfesteem, increased hostility, basic anxiety, more competitiveness, and a continuous excessive need for love and affection.

Western society contributes to this vicious circle in many aspects: 1. People of this society are imbued with the cultural teachings of kinship and humility These teachings, however, run contrary to another prevailing attitude(aggressiveness and superiority). 2. Society‘s demands for success and achievement are nearly endless 3. Western society tells people that they are free, that they can accomplish anything through hard work and perseverance . In reality, the freedom of most people is greatly restricted by genetics, social position, and the competitiveness of others. 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. • Childhood experiences are primarily responsible for personality development. • Traumatic events may leave a negative impression on a child‘s future development but these events can also be traced back to lack of genuine warmth and affection.

• Horney‘s own lack of love from her father and her close relationship with her mother must have had a powerful effect on her personal development as well as on her theoretical ideas. • 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. However, no single early experience is responsible for later personality. The totality of early relationships molds personality development.

Basic Hostility and Anxiety Written by Daniella Sophia Vallejo  

Horney believed that each person begins life with the potential for healthy development, but like other living organisms, people need favorable conditions for growth. Those favorable conditions include having a loving and warm environment but one that is not extremely lax or tolerant. Children needs to experience both genuine love and HEALTHY discipline.

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Chapter 6: Horney‘s Psychoanalytic Social Theory Two Kinds of Child’s Environment 1. Having a Warm and Loving Parents  Love + Healthy Environment = Safety and Satisfaction 2. Having a Parents who Unwillingly Love Their Children  Parents often dominate, neglect, overprotect, reject or overindulge  Do not satisfy child‘s ―Safety and Satisfaction‖ Basic Hostility  

Feelings of a child towards their parents that develops when parents fail to satisfy the needs of a child to feel safe and satisfied. However, children seldom overtly express this hostility as rage; instead, they repress their hostility toward their parents and have no awareness of it.

Basic Anxiety    

a condition when repressed hostility results to feelings of insecurity a vague sense of apprehension defined as ―A feeling of being isolated and helpless in a world conceived as potentially hostile‖. (Horney, 1950) ―A feeling of being small, insignificant, helpless, deserted, endangered, in a world that is out to abuse, cheat, attack, humiliate, betray, envy.‖ (Horney 1937)

Hostility and Anxiety are Inextricably Interwoven   

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Hostile impulses are the principal source of anxiety Basic anxiety can contribute to feelings of hostile There was a young man with repressed hostility who went on a hiking trip with a young woman who he was deeply in love with. His repressed hostility, however, also led him to become jealous of the woman. While walking on a dangerous mountain pass, the young man suddenly suffered a severe ―anxiety attack‖ in the form of rapid heart rate and heavy breathing. The anxiety resulted from a seemingly inappropriate but conscious impulse to push the young woman over the edge of the mountain pass. Basic hostility can lead to severe anxiety, but fear and anxiety can cause strong feelings of hostility. Basic anxiety itself is not a neurosis, but ―it is the nutritive soil out of which a definite neurosis may develop at any time.‖ (Horney, 1937) Basic anxiety is constant and does not need any form of stimuli to be triggered.

Four General Ways that Protects People from the Feeling of Being Alone 1. Affection  Strategy that does not always lead t authentic love  Some people try to purchase love with self-effacing compliance, material goods, or sexual favors 2. Submissiveness  Submit themselves either to people or to institutions such as organization or a religion.  Submit to another person often do so in order to gain affection

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Chapter 6: Horney‘s Psychoanalytic Social Theory 3. Striving for Power, Prestige, or Possession  Power:  defense against the real or imagined hostility of others  takes the form of a tendency to humiliate others  Prestige:  Protection against humiliation  Expressed as a tendency to humiliate others  Possession:  Acts as a buffer against destitution and poverty  Manifest itself as tendency to deprive others 4. Withrawal  Developing an independence from others by becoming emotionally detached from them  Neurotics feel that they cannot be hurt by other people

Compulsive Drives Written by Jenna Marie Rodriguez Neurotics continually and compulsively protect themselves against basic anxiety, but this defensive strategy traps them into vicious circle in which their compulsive needs to reduce lead to:     

Behavior that Perpetuate Low Self-esteem Generalized Hostility Inappropriate Striving for Power Inflated Feelings of Superiority Persistent Apprehension

Neurotic Needs  

More specific than the four protective devices Characteristics of neurotics in their attempt to combat basic anxiety 1. The neurotic need for affection and approval. Neurotics attempt to indiscriminately to please others. Try to live up to the expectation of others, tend to dread self-assertion, and are quiet uncomfortable with the hostility of others as well as the feelings within themselves. 2. The neurotic need for a powerful partner. Lacking self-confidence neurotics try to attach themselves to a powerful partner. Overvaluation of love and dread of being alone. Horney‘s own life story reveals a strong need to relate to great man. 3. The neurotic need to restrict one’s life within narrow borders. Neurotics strive to remain inconspicuous and to be content 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 greatest neurotic needs. The need for power is usually combined with the prestige and possession, it manifests itself as the need to control others and avoid feelings of weakness and 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.

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Chapter 6: Horney‘s Psychoanalytic Social Theory

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Some people combat basic anxiety by trying to be first, to be important, or to attract attention to themselves. The neurotic need for personal admiration Need to be admired for what they are rather than what they possess. Their inflated self-esteem must be continually fed by the admiration and approval of others. The neurotic need for ambition and personal achievement. Neurotics often have a strong drive to be the best. They must defeat other people in order to confirm their superiority. The neurotic need for self-sufficiency and independence. Strong need to move away from people, thereby proving that they can get along without others. Example of this is a playboy who cannot be tied down by any woman. 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 weakness from others.

The Interaction of Basic Hostility and Anxiety with the Defenses against Anxiety

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Chapter 6: Horney‘s Psychoanalytic Social Theory Important Differences between Normal and Neurotic Attitudes Normal Neurotic - Mostly or completely of their strategies toward - Unaware of their basic attitude. people. - Free to choose their actions. - Forced to act. - Experience mild conflict. - Experience severe and insoluble conflict. - Can choose from a variety of strategies. - The strategies are limited to a single trend. Neurotic Trends  Horney began to see that the list of 10 neurotic needs could be grouped into three general categories: moving toward people, moving against people, and moving away people. 1. Moving Toward People  Behaving in a compliant manner as a protection against feelings of helplessness.  Assume everyone is nice.  Neurotic who adopt this philosophy are likely to see themselves as loving, generous, unselfish, humble and sensitive to other people‘s feeling.  Horney referred to this need as ―morbid dependency‖.  Neurotic Needs: (1) Affection and Approval, (2) Powerful Partner, and (3) Narrow Limits to Life  Normal Analog: Friendly and loving 2. Moving Against People  Act of aggression in order to circumvent the hostility of others.  Assume that everyone is hostile and sees as a potential enemy.  Appearing tough, ruthless, perfect and powerful.  Neurotic Needs: (4) Power, (5) Exploitation, (6) Recognition and Unassailability, (7) Personal Admiration, and (8) Personal Achievement.  Normal Analog: Ability to survive in a competitive society 3. Moving Away from People  Adopting a detached manner, thus alleviating feelings of isolation.  Expression of needs of privacy, independence, and self-sufficiency.  All neurotics possess a need to be superior, but detached person have an intensified need to be strong and powerful. They believe that they are perfect and beyond criticism.  Neurotic Needs: (9) Self-sufficiency and Independence and (10) Perfection and Prestige.  Normal Analog: Autonomous and serene. Basic Conflict  Very young children are driven in all three directions – toward, against, and away from people.  Neurotic tend to solve in unproductive manner.

Intrapsychic Conflicts Written by Shiella Mae Espiritu 

the clash of opposing forces within the psyche, such as conflicting drives, wishes, or agencies (APA Dictionary of Psychology)

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Chapter 6: Horney‘s Psychoanalytic Social Theory  

originate from interpersonal experiences; but as they become part of a person‘s belief system, they develop a life of their own two important intrapsychic conflicts: the idealized self-image and self-hatred

Idealized Self-image   

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In warm and healthy environment, individuals develop feelings of security and self-confidence and move toward self-realization. If negative influences impede, individuals will develop feelings of alienation and need desperately to acquire a stable sense of identity so as to not feel isolated and inferior. 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.  compliant people = good and saintly  aggressive people = build an idealized image of themselves as strong, heroic, and omnipotent  detached neurotics = wise, self-sufficient, and independent. As the idealized self-image becomes solidified, neurotics begin to believe in the reality of that image. Rather than growing toward self-realization, they move toward actualizing their idealized self. Horney (1950) recognized three aspects of the idealized image: (1) the neurotic search for glory, (2) neurotic claims, and (3) neurotic pride.

Three Aspects of the Idealized Self-Image 1. The Neurotic Search for Glory  neurotics believe in the reality of their idealized self and incorporate it into all aspects of their lives. a. need for perfection - drive to mold the whole personality into the idealized self; ”tyranny of should”, ”should and should not” b. neurotic ambition - compulsive drive toward superiority c. drive toward a vindictive triumph - put others to shame or defeat them through one‘s very success 2. Neurotic Claims  neurotics build a fantasy world and proclaim self-entitlement.  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 people truly believe that they are entitled and they feel no guilt or remorse 3. Neurotic Pride  false pride based on a realistic spurious image of the idealized self  qualitatively different from healthy pride or realistic self-esteem  usually loudly proclaimed in order to protect and support a glorified view of one‘s self  neurotics imagine themselves to be glorious, wonderful, and perfect, so when others fail to treat them with special consideration, their neurotic pride is hurt 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:

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Chapter 6: Horney‘s Psychoanalytic Social Theory Six Major Expressions of Self-Hatred 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

relentless demands on the self - push themselves toward perfection by the tyranny of should merciless self-accusation – neurotics constantly berate themselves (impostor syndrome) self-contempt - expressed as belittling, disparaging, doubting, discr...