KAREN HORNEY

CORE--BASIC ANXIETY, develops from a parental lack of care and love that is universal.

Basic anxiety is also interwoven with “basic hostility” at finding that we are helpless in a hostile world.

Everyone develops strategies to cope with basic anxiety, these strategies are called

Neurotic needs (nn).

DEVELOPMENT, there are 2 possible developmental courses.

1. Insufficient emotional nourishment, which produces “normal neuroses”, or

2. Psychological abuse, which produces “pathological neuroses”.

There are 10 neurotic needs, listed below. If these 10 needs are relatively equal in force, then the person is “normally” neurotic. If one set of these needs are stronger than the others, then the person experiences one of 3 neurotic neuroses called types.

PERIPHERY

A. THE COMPLIANT TYPE (has dominant needs associated with MOVING TOWARD PEOPLE).

1. NN for affection and approval-- wish to please others, lives for the good opinion of others

2. NN for a partner who will take over one’s life—need for someone else as a protector, overvalues love, afraid of being deserted

B. THE AGGRESSIVE TYPE (has dominant needs associated with MOVING AGAINST PEOPLE).

3. NN for power—can do anything by exerting willpower, dominance over others

4. NN to exploit others—to make oneself better than others, to make others look stupid

5. NN for prestige—to be regarded well by others, social recognition

6. NN for personal admiration—an inflated idea of themselves, a wish to be praised

7. NN for personal achievement—to be the best at everything; e.g., work, sports, love, wealth

C. THE DETACHED TYPE (has dominant needs associated with MOVING AWAY FROM OTHERS).

8. NN to restrict one’s life with narrow borders—content with little, very modest

9. NN for self-sufficiency and independence—never needs anyone, no responsibilities to others

10. NN for perfection and unassailability—afraid of making mistakes, impregnable, and infallible

When 1 type dominates, the other two are unconscious (rejected and hated) and still have an influence on personality.

PATHOLOGICAL NEUROSES always involves a conflict between

A. The REAL SELF--”Who I am”, and

B. The IDEAL SELF--”Who I would like to be”

There is also the SELF IMAGE”, which may or may not be the same as the real self or the ideal self.

In Pathological Neurosis a person represses the real self (has an unconscious hatred for the real self), and believes that s/he is the ideal self. This is known as the “SEARCH FOR GLORY”.

COMPLIANT AGGRESSIVE DETACHED

There is a vicious cycle of Pathological

Neurosis where A) the contempt for the real self produces B) a greater need for an idealized self image, which produces C) higher unattainable and unrealistic standards (“shoulds”) that can never be achieved. This produces D) failure, which is anything less than perfection. Failure produces increased anxiety and increased A) the contempt for the real self.

“I have my books and my poetry to protect me. I am shielded with my armor. I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain. It’s laughter and it’s loving I distain. I am a rock. I am an island.” (Paul Simon)

“I was handsome. I was strong. I knew the words to every song. Did my singing please you?”..... “No”, she replies, “The words you sang were wrong.” (Leonard Cohen)

Personality Theory, Song Lyrics Contest:

$5 to the first person who gives me the song lyrics to an old Bob Dylan song that could be sung by an Aggressive type describing a Compliant type.

Characteristics of Pathological Neurosis

1. Need for Perfection

2. Misery

3. Neurotic Pride

4. Neurotic Claims

5. Tyranny of the “Shoulds”

6. Various Protective Strategies

a. Blind spots

b. Compartmentalization

c. Rationalization

d. Excessive self-control

e. Arbitrary rightness

f. Elusiveness, and

g. Cynicism

Psychotherapy has two aims:

1. Help the patient see that the neurotic “solution” is self-defeating.

2. Explore repressed unconscious forces.

Horney originally believed in Freud’s notion of the Oedipus Complex, then rejected it--along with notions of penis envy and female inferiority—in favor of a culturally determined view of female inferiority. That is, there are social forces in a patriarchal society that indoctrinate both genders with the assumption of male superiority and female inferiority.

“IT IS A LONG AND HARD LESSON FOR ANYONE TO LEARN, THAT OTHERS CAN NEITHER HURT NOR ESTABLISH SELF-ESTEEM” K. HORNEY