Psychoanalytic

Social Theory:
Karen Horney
Azugue
Barbosa
Caser
Rodrigo

BIOGRAPHY
Karen Danielsen was born in
Hamburg, Germany on September 16,
1885.
Father: Berndt Wackels Danielsen
was a religious, authoritarian ship's
captain
Mother: Clotilde was a well-educated,
more liberal intellectual who
encouraged Danielson in her studies.
Her father was a widower with four
teenaged children.

BIOGRAPHY
Unflattering comments by her father relating to both her looks
and her intelligence led Danielson to decide at the age of nine,
that if she couldn't be pretty, then she would be smart.
At age nine, she also developed a crush on her brother and
he turned her away. This led to Horney's depression which
would affect the rest of her life.
Studied at University of Freiburg and became one of the first
women in Germany to study medicine (1906)
Married Oskar Horney at 1909.
Had 3 daughters.
Died of cancer on December 4, 1952 at the age of 65

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Psychoanalytic Social Theory is built on the assumption that
social and cultural conditions, especially childhood
experiences, are largely responsible for shaping personality.
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.
Horney theorized that people combat basic anxiety by
adopting one of three fundamental styles of relating to
others.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHILDHOOD
Horney believed that a variety of traumatic events, such as
sexual abuse, beatings, open rejection may leave their childs
future development.
Childhood is the age from which the vast majority of problems
arise
Sexual abuse
Beatings
Open rejection
Pervasive neglect
Difficult childhood is primarily responsible for neurotic needs
The totality of early relationships shapes personality
development

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

10 Categories of Neurotic Needs
1. The neurotic need for affection and approval
neurotics attempt indiscriminately to please others
2. The neurotic need for a powerful partner
overvaluation of love and a dread of being alone or deserted
3. The neurotic need to restrict ones life within narrow borders
Neurotics frequently strive to remain inconspicuous
They downgrade their own abilities
4. The neurotic need for power
the need to control others and to avoid feelings of weakness
or stupidity

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

10 Categories of Neurotic Needs
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
trying to be first, to be important, or to attract attention to
themselves
7. The neurotic need for personal admiration
Neurotics have a need to be admired for what they are
rather than for what they possess

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

10 Categories of Neurotic Needs
8. 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
9. The neurotic need for self-sufficiency and independence
need to move away from people, proving that they can get
along without others
10. The neurotic need for perfection and unassailability
They dread making mistakes and having personal flaws,
and they desperately attempt to hide their weaknesses from
others

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Horney grouped the 10 neurotic needs into 3 groups
or trends:
1. Moving toward people (1,2)
The neurotic need for affection and approval
The neurotic need for a powerful partner
Does not mean moving toward them in the spirit of genuine
love. Rather, it refers to a neurotic need to protect oneself
against feelings of helplessness.
Neurotics who adopt this philosophy are likely to see
themselves as loving, generous, unselfish, humble, and
sensitive to other peoples feelings.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

2. Moving Against People (3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8)
The neurotic need to restrict ones life within narrow borders
The neurotic need for power
The neurotic need to exploit others.
The neurotic need for social recognition or prestige
The neurotic need for personal admiration
The neurotic need for ambition and personal achievement
Moving against others by appearing tough or ruthless. They
seldom admit their mistakes and are compulsively driven to
appear perfect, powerful, and superior.
Aggressive people play to win rather than for the enjoyment of
the contest. They may appear to be hard working and
resourceful on the job, but they take little pleasure in the work
itself. Their basic motivation is for power, prestige, and personal

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

3. Moving Away Form People (9, 10)
The neurotic need for self-sufficiency and independence
The neurotic need for perfection and unassailability
An expression of needs for privacy, independence, and selfsufficiency.
They frequently build a world of their own and refuse to allow
anyone to get close to them.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Most normal people use any of these modes of relating to
people but NEUROTICS are compelled to rigidly rely on only
one.
Neurotics compulsive behavior generates a basic
Intrapsychic conflict that may take the form of either and
idealized self image or self hatred.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Intrapsychic Conflicts
The neurotic trends flow from basic anxiety, which in turn,
stems from a childs relationships with other people.
Horney did not neglect the impact of intraspsychic factors in
the development of personality.
Horney began to place greater emphasis on the inner
conflicts that both normal and neurotic individuals experience.
Intrapsychic processes originate from interpersonal
experiences; but as they become part of a persons belief
system, they develop a life of their own.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

The idealized self image is expressed as:
o Neurotic pride
Is based on an idealized image of self and is usually loudly
proclaimed in order to protect and support a glorified view of
ones self.
A false pride based not on a realistic view of the true self but
on a spurious image of the idealized self.
o Neurotic claims
Neurotics build a fantasy world, a world that is out of sync with
the real world.
They believe that something is wrong with the outside world,
they proclaim that they are special and therefore entitled to be
treated in accordance with their idealized view of themselves.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

The idealized self image is expressed as:
o Neurotic search for glory
Comprehensive drive toward actualizing the ideal self.
As neurotics come to believe in the reality of their idealizedself, they begin to incorporate it into all aspects of their livestheir goals, their self concept, and their relations with others.
Elements of Neurotic search for glory
Need for Perfection
Drive to shape the whole personality into the Idealized self.
They try to achieve perfection by erecting a complex set of
shoulds and should nots.
Horney referred to this drive as the Tyranny of Should

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Neurotic Ambition
The compulsive drive toward superiority.
Neurotic ambition may also take a less materialistic form,
such as being most saintly or most charitable person in the
community.
The Drive toward a Vindictive Triumph
The most destructive element of all.
Its chief aim is to put others to shame or defeat them
through ones very success; or to attain the power to inflict
suffering on others mostly humiliating them.
Horneys personal relationship with men, she seemed to
take pleasure in causing them to feel ashamed and
humiliated.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

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 despise themselves. There are six major
ways in which people express self-hatred.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

6 Major Ways in which people express self-hatred:
Relentless Demands on Self
-These People continue to push themselves toward
perfection because they believe they should be perfect.
Merciless Self-Accusation
-Neurotics constantly berate themselves.
-May take variety forms, from obviously grandiose
expressions, such as taking responsibility for natural
disasters, to scrupulously questioning the virtue of their own
motivations.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

6 Major Ways in which people express self-hatred:
Self-contempt
-Expressed as disparaging, doubting, discrediting , and
ridiculing oneself.
-Prevents people from striving for improvement or
achievement.
Self-frustration
-Stems from self-hatred and is designed to actualize an
inflated self-image.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

6 Major Ways in which people express self-hatred:
Self-torment/ Self-torture
-Inflicts harm or suffering on themselves.
-Physical Harms on oneself.
Self-Destructive Actions and Impulses
-Can be Physical or Psychological, Conscious or
Unconscious, Acute or Chronic, Carried out an action or
enacted only in the imagination.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Basic Hostility - Repressed feelings of rage that originate
during childhood when children fear that their parents will
not satisfy their needs for safety and satisfaction
Basic Anxiety - Feelings of isolation and helplessness in a
potentially hostile world.
Basic hostility and basic anxiety are inextricably interwoven.
Basic hostility led to severe anxiety, but anxiety and fear can
also lead to 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

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Defense Against Anxiety
Normal defenses
Spontaneous movement
Toward people
(friendly, loving personality)
Against people
(a survivor in a competitive society)
Away from people
(autonomous, serene personality)
Neurotic defenses

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Feminine Psychology
Horney followed much of Sigmund Freud's theory, she
disagreed with his views on female psychology.
She rejected Freuds concept of penis envy, declaring it to be
both inaccurate and demeaning to women.
Horney instead proposed the concept of Womb Envy in
which men experience feelings of inferiority because they
cannot give birth to children.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Feminine Psychology
Horney agreed to Adler that many women possess a
masculine protest; that is they have a pathological belief that
men are superior to women.
She found it problematic that women were defined in relation
to men and argued that penis envy, if it existed at all, was
rooted, not in a wish to possess a penis but, rather, in a
desire for the status and recognition afforded to men by the
culture.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Feminine Psychology
She further argued that men's need to succeed and leave a
name for themselves sprung from womb envy - their inability
to carry and bear children.
She argued that penis envy was not an innate psychological
complex, but instead a product of gender power imbalances.
Under this conception, women don't envy men's penises;
they envy their power and privilege. Horney further argued
that men might be envious of women because there is less
pressure upon women to gain power.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Psychotherapy
Focus is on changing one or all of the neurotic trends
Help patients gradually grow in a direction of self-realization
by:
o Giving up their idealized self-image
o Relinquishing their neurotic search for glory
o And, changing self-hatred to an acceptance of the real
self
Even though patients have a strong investment in
maintaining the status quo, they do not, generally, wish to
remain ill.

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Psychotherapy
The three neurotic trends tend to be cast in favorable terms
like love, mastery, and freedom.
Because patients usually see their behavior in positive terms,
their actions appear to them to be healthy, right, and
desirable
The therapists task then is to convince patients that their
present solutions are perpetuating rather than alleviating the
core neurosis or problem which takes time and effort to
change.
There is NO quick fix.
Patients must understand the differences between their
idealized self-image

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Psychotherapy
There is NO quick fix.
Patients must understand the differences between their
idealized self-image
and their real self.
This is accomplished through dream analysis, free
association, and talking

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

HORNEYS CONCEPT OF HUMANITY
1. Free will vs. Determinism : Free will
People become the person that their culture and social interactions dictate
that they become. A healthy person would have a large element of free
choice, even a neurotic individual, through psychotherapy and hard work can
wrest come control over those conflicts.

2. Optimism vs. Pessimism : Optimism

People do not enjoy suffering. Once a person realize that a problem exist
they will naturally want to remedy that problem. The trouble with neurotic
behavior is that each of the neurotic trends of behavior are actually methods
the neurotic individual uses to solve problems in their daily life (Feist & Feist,
2009).

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

HORNEYS CONCEPT OF HUMANITY
3. Causality vs. Teleology : Middle Position
The emphasis on childhood is a perspective of causality. It suggest that who
a person is was determined by events that have already happened. Within
psychoanalytic social theory the concept of teleology is not completely
overshadowed by causality. It may seem at first that psychoanalytic social
theory is a pessimistic view. This is not entirely accurate. While the problems
associated with neurosis support causality the solutions of neurosis actually
lay in teleology.

4. Conscious vs. Unconscious : Middle Position

While moving toward self-realization and away from neurotic behavior
requires a conscious effort, Horney believed that most people were only
partially aware of their own motivations and that much of what determines
and individual's actions occurs unconsciously (Feist & Feist, 2009).

PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

HORNEYS CONCEPT OF HUMANITY
5. Biological vs. Sociological : Sociological
Psychoanalytic social theory, as the name implies is based on the belief that
social factors rather than biological factors are more influential to the
development of personality. The central assumption in psychoanalytic social
theory is that a person's personality is shaped through social and cultural
conditions (Clonginger, 2008; Feist & Feist, 2009).

6. Uniqueness vs. Universality : Universality

Psychoanalytic social theory is limited in it's scope because Horney focused
her observations almost entirely on the neurotic behavior of her patients
(Feist & Feist, 2009).