chapter 6

• Psychoanalytic social theory


  Theory built on the assumption that social and cultural conditions, especially childhood experiences, are largely responsible for shaping personality
• Karen Horney


  • Felt unwanted and unloved as a child
  • Engaged in an extended self-analysis
  • Became one of the first women in Germany to study medicine
• Horney's independence was mostly superficial, as she retained a compulsive need to merge with a great man
• Horney became familiar with Freud's writings and began an analysis with Karl Abraham, one of Freud's close associates
• Horney's early writings had a distinctive Freudian flavor, but she eventually became disillusioned with orthodox psychoanalysis and constructed her own revisionist theory
• Horney's view of humanity


  Optimistic, centered on cultural forces that are amenable to change (in contrast to Freud's pessimistic view based on innate instincts)
• Horney's criticism of Freud


  • Strict adherence to orthodox psychoanalysis would lead to stagnation
  • Objected to Freud's ideas on feminine psychology
  • Stressed the importance of cultural influences in shaping personality
• Horney's view on neuroses

  Not the result of instincts, but the person's attempt to find paths through a "wilderness" created by society, not by instincts or anatomy
• Impact of culture


  • Modern culture is based on competition, which results in feelings of isolation and an intensified need for affection
  • Contradictions in cultural teachings (e.g. kinship vs. aggressiveness) provide intrapsychic conflicts that threaten psychological health
• Importance of childhood experiences

  Lack of genuine warmth and affection in childhood is primarily responsible for neurotic needs, which become a means of gaining feelings of safety
• No single early experience is responsible for later personality, but the totality of early relationships molds personality development
• Basic hostility

  Feelings of rejection or neglect by parents, or a defense against basic anxiety
• Basic anxiety

  Feelings of isolation and helplessness, resulting from parental threats or a defense against hostility
• Basic hostility


  Leads to basic anxiety
• Basic anxiety


  Leads to basic hostility
• Normal defenses against anxiety

  • Spontaneous movement toward people (friendly, loving personality)
  • Spontaneous movement against people (a survivor in a competitive society)
  • Spontaneous movement away from people (autonomous, serene personality)
• Neurotic defenses against anxiety

  • Compulsive movement toward people (compliant personality)
  • Compulsive movement against people (aggressive personality)
  • Compulsive movement away from people (detached personality)
• Moving toward people (neurotic trend)


  A neurotic need to protect oneself against feelings of helplessness, involving a desperate striving for affection and approval, or seeking a powerful partner
• Moving against people (neurotic trend)

  Assuming everyone is hostile and adopting a strategy of appearing tough or ruthless, motivated by a strong need to exploit others and appear perfect, powerful and superior
• Moving away from people (neurotic trend)


  Adopting a detached manner to alleviate feelings of isolation
• Healthy children are not necessarily incompatible in their drives toward, against, and away from people, but basic anxiety can drive some children to act compulsively, limiting them to a single neurotic trend
• The neurotic trends of moving toward, against, and away from people are not just behaviours, but whole ways of thinking, feeling and acting - a philosophy of life
• Moving against people


  Neurotically aggressive people are just as compulsive as compliant people, and their behavior is prompted by basic anxiety. They move against others by appearing tough or ruthless, motivated by a strong need to exploit others and use them for their own benefit. They seldom admit their mistakes and are compulsively driven to appear perfect, powerful, and superior.
• Neurotic needs incorporated in the neurotic trend of moving against people

  • Need to be powerful
  • Need to exploit others
  • Need for recognition and prestige
  • Need to be admired
  • Need to achieve
• Aggressive people


  Play to win rather than for the enjoyment of the contest, appear hard working and resourceful but take little pleasure in the work itself, their basic motivation is for power, prestige, and personal ambition
• It is not to the credit of American society that such characteristics are rewarded while love, affection, and the capacity for true friendship—the very qualities that aggressive people lack—are valued less highly.
• Moving away from people


  A neurotic trend that many people use in an attempt to solve the basic conflict of isolation. It is an expression of needs for privacy, independence, and self-sufficiency. Neurotics find associating with others an intolerable strain and are compulsively driven to move away from people, to attain autonomy and separateness.
• Detached persons


  • Have an intensified need to be strong and powerful, their basic feelings of isolation can be tolerated only by the self-deceptive belief that they are perfect and therefore beyond criticism, they dread competition, fearing a blow to their illusory feelings of superiority
• Three neurotic trends


  • Moving toward people
  • Moving against people
  • Moving away from people
• The neurotic trends flow from basic anxiety, which stems from a child's relationships with other people.
• Idealized self-image


  An extravagantly positive view of oneself that exists only in one's personal belief system. Neurotics endow themselves with infinite powers and unlimited capabilities, seeing themselves as a hero, genius, supreme lover, saint, or god.
• Neurotic search for glory


  The comprehensive drive toward actualizing the ideal self, including the need for perfection, neurotic ambition, and the drive toward a vindictive triumph.
• Neurotic claims


  Demands for special treatment and privilege based on the idealized self-image, rather than on realistic attributes and accomplishments.
• Neurotic pride


  A false pride based on the idealized self-image rather than on genuine self-esteem.
• Six ways people express self-hatred


  • Relentless demands on the self (tyranny of the should)
  • Merciless self-accusation
  • Self-contempt
  • Self-frustration
  • Self-torment
  • Self-destructive actions and impulses
• Self-frustration


  Stems from self-hatred and is designed to actualize an inflated self-image
• Neurotics


  Frequently shackled by taboos against enjoyment
• Taboos against enjoyment


  • "I don't deserve a new car."
  • "I must not wear nice clothes because many people around the world are in rags."
  • "I must not strive for a better job because I'm not good enough for it."
• Self-torment


  When people's main intention is to inflict harm or suffering on themselves
• Self-torment


  • Anguishing over a decision
  • Exaggerating the pain of a headache
  • Cutting themselves with a knife
  • Starting a fight that they are sure to lose
  • Inviting physical abuse