Karen Horney - Psychoanalytic Social Theory

Karen Horney - Psychoanalytic Social Theory

• Biography: Youngest child of a 50-year-old father and second wife. Each older sibling was favored, leading to feelings of being unwanted and unloved. She became a physician, fulfilling a sibling's dream.
• Basic Hostility & Basic Anxiety: Parents' failure to meet a child's needs for safety and satisfaction creates basic hostility. Repressed hostility leads to basic anxiety – feelings of insecurity, and apprehension.
• Defenses Against Basic Anxiety: Neurotics use various defenses to cope with basic anxiety. These include affection (trying to win love through self-effacing compliance or material possessions), submissiveness, power (dominating others), prestige (protecting against humiliation), and withdrawal (emotional detachment).
• Modern Culture: Competition among individuals results in feelings of isolation and intensified needs for affection.
• Childhood Experiences: Childhood experiences, including traumas, significantly impact future development. Neurotic conflicts can stem from any phase of development.
• Objected Feminine Psychology: Horney disagreed with the Freudian view of feminine psychology and found that neuroses are not a result of instincts, but attempts to find paths.

Neurotic Needs

• Affection and Approval: Desire to please others.
• Powerful Partner: Overvaluation of love and relationship.
• Restricting One's Life: Keeping experiences confined, inconspicuous.
• Power: Control over others and avoiding feelings.
• Exploiting Others: Using others as tools to achieve personal goals.
• Social Recognition: Attracting attention and seeking prestige.
• Personal Admiration: Seeking personal praise and validation.
• Personal Achievement: Driven to excel and be the best.
• Self-Sufficiency: Independence from others.
• Perfection: Achieving ideal standards, avoiding mistakes and blemishes.

Neurotic Trends

• Moving Toward People: Seeking affection, approval, and acceptance from others.
• Moving Against People: Seeking power, recognition, and dominance through exploiting others.
• Moving Away from People: Seeking independence, self-sufficiency and emotional distance.

Normal vs. Neurotic Defenses

• Normal: Spontaneous movement, driven by friendly and loving feelings towards others.
• Neurotic: Compulsive movement, driven by a need for compliance, aggression, or emotional detachment.

Erik Erikson - Post-Freudian Theory

• Biography: Born in 1902 in Germany, he grew up as a wandering artist and poet before finding a life in the US
• Post-Freudian Theory: Focused on the ego and its role in shaping personality across the entire lifespan. Erikson believed that personality develops through a series of psychosocial crises that confront individuals throughout their lives.
  • Stages of Development: Erikson outlines eight stages of psychosocial development, each with a specific developmental crisis that individuals must resolve to move to the next stage. Each stage is focused on particular relationships and outcomes.

Harry Stack Sullivan - Interpersonal Theory

• Biography: Born in 1902 in Southern Germany, he moved to the US
• Interpersonal Theory: Focused on the importance of interpersonal relationships in shaping personality. Sullivan argued that personality develops as a result of the interactions between individuals.
  • Stages of development: Sullivan outlined stages of interpersonal development in childhood and adulthood, highlighting the impact of significant relationships.

Erich Fromm - Humanistic Psychoanalysis

• Biography: Born in 1900 in Germany
• Human Dilemma: Humans are alienated from nature and each other due to their lack of instinctual guidance to deal with the world.
• Human Needs: Need for relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, and wholeness.

Rollo May - Existential Psychology

• Biography: Born in 1905 in Ohio, grew up in Michigan, Roamed Europe
• Existentialism: Focused on the individual's experience of freedom, responsibility, and meaning.
• Dasein: Being-in-the-world; emphasizes our interaction with the world.
• Environmental Dimensions: Umwelt, Mitwelt, Eigenwelt; the environments that influence our individuality.
  • Umwelt: Physical environment
  • Mitwelt: Social environment
  • Eigenwelt: Inner world/identity

Abraham Maslow - Holistic Dynamic Theory

• Biography: Oldest of seven children in a tumultuous family
• Holistic Dynamic Theory: Personality is a unified whole rather than a collection of independent traits.
• Hierarchy of Needs: Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs, ranging from basic physiological needs to higher-level needs such as self-actualization.
• Self-Actualization: The highest level of human motivation; reaching potential and fulfillment.
• Growth Needs: Needs that arise after basic/physiological needs are met; self-esteem, belonging, self-actualization.

Carl Rogers - Person-Centered Theory

• Biography: Born in 1902 in Illinois
• Person-Centered Theory: Focuses on the individual's inherent capacity for growth and self-actualization.
• Self-Concept: Person's understanding of who they are.
• Ideal Self: The ideal self is what one would like to be; if self-concept and ideal self are different, this can lead to issues and incongruence.
• Unconditional Positive Regard: Acceptance and acceptance of the individual, regardless of their actions, behaviors, or feelings.
• Congruence: Consistency between the real and ideal self; more congruent the more fulfilled the individual

Explore the life and theories of Karen Horney, a pioneering figure in psychoanalytic social theory. Learn about her concepts of basic hostility and anxiety, defenses against anxiety, and the impact of modern culture on interpersonal relationships. Delve into the significance of childhood experiences in shaping an individual's psychological development.