Karen Horney: Theory of Neurosis PDF

Karen Horney "Fortunately analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist." Karen Horney – Culture and Feminism Karen Horney Theory of Neurosis Feminine Psychology Desp...

Karen Horney "Fortunately analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist." Karen Horney – Culture and Feminism Karen Horney Theory of Neurosis Feminine Psychology Despite Horney’s efforts, as feminist Germaine Greer (1971) quipped, “Freud is the father of psychoanalysis. It had no mother”(p. 83). 1885-1952  Chapter Outline 1. Life of Horney 2. Childhood Need for Safety 3. Basic Anxiety 4. Neurotic Needs This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under 5. Neurotic Competitiveness CC BY-SA-NC. 6. Idealized Self Image 7. Feminine Psychology 8. Questions About Human Nature 9. Assessment 10. Research 11. Reflections Life of Horney: Family Challenges 1885 – 1952 Born in Germany Father: Strict, religious Mother: Spirited, freethinking Felt rejected by parents Envied brother because he was male Life of Horney: A Search For Love Search for love vs. career Depression in adulthood Relationship with Erich Fromm Began Freudian Psychoanalysis Turned to self analysis Founded psychoanalytic associations Life of Horney: Rebellion & Hostility acted the part of the adoring, obedient daughter model child - clinging and compliant did not think she was getting sufficient love and security self-sacrifice and good behavior were not working became ambitious and rebellious if no love and security, then revenge Why? felt unattractive and inadequate “If I couldn’t be beautiful, I decided I would be smart” As an adult - realized how much hostility she had her theory says lack of love fosters anxiety and hostility “In all her psychoanalytic writings Karen Horney was struggling to make sense of herself and to obtain relief from her own difficulties” Karen Horney was one of few women in medical school. While at the University of Berlin, she met her husband, and later married him. Both are shown here, with two of their children in 1913. Life of Horney: Still Searching for Love At 14, crush on teacher (diary); infatuations At 17, she awakened to the reality of sex soon met man - described as her first real love (2 days) Another man - 76 pages of soul-searching in her diary being in love eliminated her anxiety and insecurity? offered an escape (love addiction? Feeling Good) her quest for love and security was often thwarted But search for career straightforward and successful decided at age 12 to become a doctor discrimination and oppostiion In 1906, entered the U. of Freiburg medical school, only six years after the first woman had, reluctantly, been admitted. Life of Horney: Marriage and Career Met 2 men at med school Fell in love with one and married the other Husband – Oskar Horney (doing PhD in pol.sci) She earned her degree in 1913 U. of Berlin Life of Horney: Her Psychoanalysis Karl Abraham (a Freudian loyalist) attraction to forceful men analysis was not a success – prefer self-analysis self-analysis strongly influenced by Adler compensation for inferiority feelings Analysis? believed that by studying medicine and by promiscuous sexual behavior, she was acting more like a man (masculine protest Adler)  Childhood Need for Safety Safety Need Need security & freedom from fear Infant Helplessness Can lead to repression of hostility Arises from parental behaviors – e.g. Lack of warmth & affection, guilt  Basic Anxiety Pervasive feeling of loneliness & helplessness Foundation of neurosis Self-Protective Mechanisms: 1. Securing affection 3. Attaining power & love 2. Being submissive 4. Withdrawing  Neurotic Needs & Trends Defense attitudes that become exaggerated, or inappropriate strivings Neurotic Needs Neurotic Trends Overused self- Expression of needs protective mechanisms Three categories of behavior & Ten irrational attitudes (coping defenses against strategies or primary modes of relating) anxiety  KAREN HORNEY What is she best known for? The concept of BASIC ANXIETY – a childs fear of being alone Theconcept of THE REAL SELF – the inner core of personality that we perceive about ourselves Needs Trends Affection & Approval Movement Toward People Dominant Partner (Compliant Personality) Power Exploitation Movement Against People Prestige (Aggressive Personality) Admiration (hostility) Achievement Self-Sufficiency Movement Away from People Perfection (Detached Personality) Narrow Limits to Life  Neurotic Trends http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YdaZAqtWC7A/TpX2oORuJPI/AAAAAAAABS0/DrPZUpMDQlo/s320/people+pleaser+4.jpg 1. Compliant Personality Moving toward people Suppress own desires Fear rejection As a solution, this coping strategy leads a self-effacing orientation towards life (excessive appeal to be loved)  EXAMPLE http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pkwvLK4Pu6c/UAxxiKEJFNI/AAAAAAAACBw/Y1hf1fzr6_w/s1600/Adult+Children.jpg For example, a person raised by alcoholic parents may have learned to obtain self-esteem by conforming to exploitive demands As adults they may seek out exploitive partners and devote themselves to attempting to make the partner happy and thereby win their approval  Neurotic Trends 2. Aggressive Personality Moving against people Maintains superiority & power Driven by insecurity, anxiety, & hostility Highly successful in work As a solution, this coping strategy leads a self- expansive orientation towards life (excessive attempt at mastery)  Neurotic Trends 3. Detached Personality Moving away from people Maintains emotional distance & privacy Sense of superiority Suppress feelings toward others As a solution, this coping strategy leads a resigning orientation towards life (excessive desire to be free of others)  Moving Away From http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc9eifa54R1rehiydo1_500.png Coping With 10 Neurotic Needs 10 patterns of neurotic needs (from clin. work) ⚫ they are based on things that we all need, but they have become distorted in several ways by the difficulties of some people's lives  10 Neurotic Needs Affection and Approval constantly seeking to please others toward A domineering partner excessive dependence Power Need for controlling others and despising weakness Exploitation Fear of being exploited but not of exploiting against Recognition and Prestige Seeking ever higher status Admiration Seeking compliments, eve if undeserved Ambition and Achievement Wanting to be the best, as a result of inner security Self-Sufficiency Never committing to others away Perfection Attempting to be flawless Narrow Limits Being content with having little and thus submitting to others  Neurotic Need #1 affection and approval the indiscriminate need to please others and be liked by them  Neurotic Need #2 a partner someone who will take over one's life includes idea that love will solve all of one's problems we all would like a partner to share life with, but the neurotic goes a step or two too far  Neurotic Need #3 restrict one's life to narrow borders to be undemanding to be satisfied with little to be inconspicuous even this has its normal counterpart ⚫ Who hasn't felt the need to simplify life when it gets too stressful, to join a monastic order, disappear into routine, or to return to the womb?  Neurotic Need #4 Power for control over others for a facade of omnipotence we all seek strength, but the neurotic may be desperate for it dominance for its own sake, often accompanied by a contempt for the weak and a strong belief in one's own rational powers Neurotic Need #5 exploit others get the better of them In the ordinary person, this might be the need to have an effect, to have impact, to be heard In the neurotic, it can become manipulation and the belief that people are there to be used may also involve a fear of being used, of looking stupid. You may have noticed that the people who love practical jokes more often than not cannot take being the butt of such a joke themselves!  Neurotic Need #6 socialrecognition or prestige We are social creatures, and sexual ones, and like to be appreciated. But these people are overwhelmingly concerned with appearances and popularity. They fear being ignored, be thought plain, "uncool," or "out of it."  Neurotic Need #7 personal admiration We need to be admired for inner qualities as well as outer ones. We need to feel important and valued But some people are more desperate, and need to remind everyone of their importance -- "Nobody recognizes genius," "I'm the real power behind the scenes, you know," and so on Their fear is of being thought nobodies, unimportant and meaningless  Neurotic Need #8 personal achievement Again, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with achievement -- far from it! But some people are obsessed with it. They have to be number one at everything they do. Since this is, of course, quite a difficult task, you will find these people devaluing anything they cannot be number one in! If they are good runners, then the discus and the hammer are "side shows." If academic abilities are their strength, physical abilities are of no importance, and so on.  Neurotic Need #9 self-sufficiency and independence We should all cultivate some autonomy, but some people feel that they shouldn't ever need anybody They tend to refuse help and are often reluctant to commit to a relationship Neurotic Need #10 perfection and unassailability To become better and better at life and our special interests is hardly neurotic but some people are driven to be perfect and scared of being flawed They can't be caught making a mistake and need to be in control at all times  “The Tyranny of the Shoulds” “Striving for Glory” Horney described this stretching between the despised and ideal selves as "the tyranny of the shoulds" and neurotic "striving for glory:" The compliant person believes ⚫ "I should be sweet, self-sacrificing, saintly." The aggressive person says ⚫ "I should be powerful, recognized, a winner." The withdrawing person believes ⚫ "I should be independent, aloof, perfect.“ And while vacillating between these two impossible selves, the neurotic is alienated from their true core and prevented from actualizing their potentials.  Neurotic Needs & Trends Conflict Neurotic trends incompatible Core of neurosis Neurotic Person One of the three trends is dominant Other needs in conflict & go unmet  In addition to http://www.springerpub.com/images/covers/9780826129956.jpg identifying the three ‘selves’ which we possess within our psyche, Horney also suggested that as a reaction to basic anxiety, people also develop different modes of adapting to the world ⚫ Passive ⚫ Aggressive ⚫ Withdrawn  Idealized Self-Image Idealized picture of oneself Unifies personality Healthy Characteristics: Realistic appraisal of abilities Flexible and dynamic Reflects growth & self awareness Neurotic Characteristics: Unattainable & inflexible ideal Leads to denial of self Tyranny of the Externalization Shoulds Behaving how one Projecting conflicts thinks they should on outside world The Self Ideal Self Real self the inner coreof concept of the self personality that we view as that we perfection perceive& hope to achieve, about as Despised self molded by ourselves, including perceived consists of perceptions of our our inadequacies inferiority and shortcomings, potential often based on others’ negative for self- inaccurate evaluations of us and our realization resulting helplessness  Feminine Psychology Began in 1922 in opposition to Freud Revision of psychoanalysis to encompass womanhood & women’s roles  Feminine Psychology Oedipus Complex Womb Envy Not sexual Envy men feel toward Represents conflict women due to her between dependence capacity for & hostility motherhood Flight from Womanhood Motherhood or Career Denial of femininity Social & cultural Women’s unconscious conflict wish to be men Rejection of Penis Envy Karen Horney modified Freudian techniques She was not completely against Freud What kind of environment do women live in? What kind of messages to they receive? Self-fulfilling prophecy is not surprising  Rejection of Penis Envy Both observed inferiority feelings Freud - anatomy Horney – environment Overemphasis on securing the love of a man Definition of masculinity/femininity P Envy but without the penis Womb envy?  Karen Horney Penis Envy conceded that it did occasionally occur in neurotic women, she felt strongly that it was not anywhere near to a universal Womb Envy Horney suggested a male counterpart to penis envy some men envious of a woman's ability to bear children ⚫ the degree they are driven to succeed? ⚫ to have their names live on after them? ⚫ compensation for their inability to more directly extend themselves into the future by means of carrying, bearing, and nurturing their children? The Self Ideal Self Real self the inner coreof concept of the self personality that we view as that we perfection perceive& hope to achieve, about as Despised self molded by ourselves, including perceived consists of perceptions of our our inadequacies inferiority and shortcomings, potential often based on others’ negative for self- inaccurate evaluations of us and our realization resulting helplessness  Basic Anxiety The Foundation of Neurosis  Basic Anxiety “insidiously increasing, all- pervading feeling of being lonely and helpless in a hostile world”  Basic Anxiety the foundation for all neuroses  Basic Anxiety inseparably tied to feelings of hostility, helplessness, and fear  In Horney’s words, we feel “small, insignificant, helpless, deserted, endangered, in a world that is out to abuse, cheat, attack, humiliate, betray” (1937, p. 92) 4 different ways we try to protect ourselves in childhood from basic anxiety 1. securing affection and love 2. being submissive 3. attaining power 4. withdrawing This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-ND.  Children powerless Basic Anxiety Must repress hostility Basic anxiety (replaces Freud’s emphasis on biological drives; Horney emphasis on social) Fear of being alone, helpless and insecure Why?  The Effects of Poor Parenting? Lack of warmth, stability, respect, or involvement? Examples? How did affect them? How did the relationships in early life lay the foundation for their later personalities and how they interact with the world?  Basic Anxiety (universal) a child’s fear of being alone, helpless, and insecure Children are powerless unable simply to go out into the world and claim their rightful place ⚫ Repress hostility as a result of this powerlessness toward the powerful adults in their worlds and instead strive to please these adults as a means of getting their needs met Basic Anxiety arises from unhealthy parent/child relations Lack of warmth Lack of Stability Lack of Respect Lack of involvement  Basic Anxiety It can be directed at everyone eventually ⚫ Hence, the internal turmoil becomes focused outward, on the world in general Interpsychic vs. Intrapsychic ⚫ Although Horney accepted Freud’s basic psychoanalytic notion that people are driven by unconscious, irrational motives that develop in childhood, she saw these motives as arising from social conflicts within the family and larger conflicts within the society  4 protective mechanisms Get love, submit, get power, withdraw Goal is to protect against basic anxiety NOT to pursue happiness or pleasure Hence impair growth of personality Sex or other physiological means to reduce anxiety? people use them (food), but leads to impoverished personality (unhealthy)  Neurotic Coping Strategies http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/4000000/Paris-British-My-New-BFF-Promos-paris-hilton-4030031-1200-1600.jpg What is neurotic? Example – overidentification with ideal self PUTS YOU AT RISK for MISERY Born 1970-1990? heavily praised? told you could do anything? succeed at everything? Narcissistic (selfish and with excessive self-regard)? Consequence? Anxiety, depression, and misery (Twenge, 2006)  Theory of Neurosis ⚫ the best theory of neurosis we have to date ⚫ the foundation for the cognitive approach to treating anxiety and mood disorders (depression) ⚫ more continuous with normal life than previous theorists suggest ⚫ we all engage in strategies to attempt to make life more bearable (given the challenges we face in it) ⚫ we seek out a way of "interpersonal control and coping“... healthy or unhealthy ⚫ most of us seem to be doing alright coping ⚫ the neurotic seems to be sinking fast  II.Aggression, http://www.springerpub.com/images/covers/9780826129956.jpg 4,5,6,7,8 (moving- against strategy) (expansive solution) – strive for power – initiate conflicts with others III. Withdrawal, 9,10,3 (moving-away-from strategy) (resigning solution) – withdrawal of emotion  The Cure? Childrendevelop feelings of security when parents show ⚫ Comfort ⚫ Warmth ⚫ Affection  Idealized Self Real self ⚫ Represents what we are; those things that are true about us Idealized self ⚫ Represents what we think we should be ⚫ Used as a model to assist us in developing our potential and achieving self-actualization Alienation Tyranny of the should Figure 5.1: The Normal and the Neurotic Self The Self Ideal Self Real self the inner coreof concept of the self personality that we view as that we perfection perceive& hope to achieve, about as Despised self molded by ourselves, including perceived consists of perceptions of our our inadequacies inferiority and shortcomings, potential often based on others’ negative for self- inaccurate evaluations of us and our realization resulting helplessness Page 123 The Self Real self the inner core of personality that we perceive about ourselves, including our potential for self- realization  “The Tyranny of the Shoulds” “Striving for Glory” Horney described this stretching between the despised and ideal selves as "the tyranny of the shoulds" and neurotic "striving for glory:" The compliant person believes ⚫ "I should be sweet, self-sacrificing, saintly." The aggressive person says ⚫ "I should be powerful, recognized, a winner." The withdrawing/detached person believes ⚫ "I should be independent, aloof, perfect.“ And while vacillating between these two impossible selves, the neurotic is alienated from their true core and prevented from actualizing their potentials. Basic Anxiety A child’s fear of being alone, helpless and insecure  Poor Parenting Lack of warmth Instability Lack of respect Uninvolved Selves IdealSelf Real Self Despised Self http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/4000000/Paris-British-My-New-BFF-Promos-paris-hilton-4030031-1200-1600.jpg If you neurotically overidentify with the Ideal Self and believe you are over the top amazing, you are at risk for misery heavily praised? told you could do anything? succeed at everything? - This could lead to becoming a selfish person with excessive self-regard - And that leads to anxiety, depression and misery (Twenge, 2006) - THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONFIDENCE AND NARCISSISM  Gratitude associated with well-being When you don’t get what you want you will be miserable. Woe is me. Poor me. Anger. People getting in your way (how dare they). Then you will use drugs and alcohol or overeating (or something else) to drown your sorrows because you have not developed healthy sense of self and coping strategies. And/or you will take what you want by force (stealing, cheating, unethical or criminal) – which is a vicious cycle because this not only hurts others but it also comes back to bit you in the A@#! The neurotic needs are ways of coping (albeit neurotic). Based on things that we all need, but they have become distorted in the neurotic due to the hardship of their life.