Psychoanalytic Social

Theory

KAREN HORNEY

Biography♥ Born on September 16, 1885 in Germany.♥ Only daughter of Clotilde and Berndt Wackels

Danielson.♥ She picture out her father as a harsh

disciplinarian.♥ She felt deprived of her father’s affection

even though her father brought her gifts all over the world and even took her on three long sea voyages.

♥ She developed something of a crush on her own brother.

♥ 1904- her mother divorced her father.♥ 1906- she entered medical school.♥ 1909- she married Oscar Horney, a lawyer.

♥ 1910- gave birth to her first daughter Brigitte.

♥ 1911- Her mother died.(Has 3 daughters)♥ 1923- Oskar's business

collapsed and he developed meningitis.

♥ 1923, Karen's brother died at the age of 40 of a pulmonary infection.

♥ Karen became very depressed.♥ 1926 – divorce from Husband

and transfer to the U.S.♥ Have an affair with Fromm.♥ 1952- She died in her sleep.

Karen with her husband and her daughters.

Theory ♥Neurosis♥Development of Neurosis♥10 Neurotic Needs♥Coping Strategies♥Self Theory♥Womb Envy

NeurosisNeurosis according to Horney, it is an attempt

to make life bearable.Irrational defenses against anxiety that

become a permanent part of personality and that affect behavior.

Neurotic needs are unrealistic, unreasonable and indiscriminate.

Neurotic need is much more intense.

Childhood• Horney believes that

Childhood has a great effect on our behavior as we grow.

• If we felt unloved, unwanted and so much negative feelings dominant our childhood there will be a big problem when we grow.

• Abused children has a big possibility to be aggressive.

Parental Indifference• “Basic Evil”• “The road to hell”• Lack of warm and

affection in childhood.• It is base in child

perception and not in Parents’ intention.

Basic Hostility• The first reaction to

Parental Indifference is anger.

• Protesting injustice.• Parents are unwilling to

love.• Parents are incapable to

give love.• Some children find

hostility as an habitual response to life’s difficulties.

Basic Anxiety

• Horney believe that the nutritive soil of Neurosis is Basic Anxiety.

• Fear of helplessness and abandonment.

• Basic Anxiety isn't neurosis itself.

10 Neurotic Needs1. The neurotic need for affection and approval.2. The neurotic need for a partner3. The neurotic need to restrict one's life to narrow borders4. The neurotic need for power, for control over others5. The neurotic need to exploit others and get the better of

them. 6. The neurotic need for social recognition or prestige. 7. The neurotic need for personal admiration. 8. The neurotic need for personal achievement.9. The neurotic need for self-sufficiency and independence. 10.The neurotic need for perfection and unassailability.

1. The neurotic need for affection and approval.

Normal: It is ok that we need affection but we don’t expect it from everyone we meet.

• Neurotic: it is when we have indiscriminate need to please others and be liked by them.

2. The neurotic need for a partner.

Normal: We all want to have a partner that we can love and can love us back.

• Neurotic: Partner is someone who will take over one's life. This includes the idea that love will solve all of one's problems.

3. The neurotic need to restrict one's life to narrow borders.

Normal: It is ok that we want our lives to be simple to manage.

Neurotic: it is when someone want to be undemanding, satisfied with little, to be inconspicuous.

Who hasn't felt the need to simplify life when it gets too stressful.

They rather join a monastic order, disappear into routine, or to return to the womb?

4. The neurotic need for power.

Normal: Its ok that we have power to improve.

Neurotic: Is when we think that power is for control over others, for a facade of omnipotence.

the neurotic may be desperate for it.

This is dominance for its own sake, often accompanied by a contempt for the weak and a strong belief in one's own rational powers.

5. The neurotic need to exploit others and get the better of them. Normal: its ok that we need to have an effect, to have impact, to be heard. Neurotic: it can become manipulation and the belief that people are there to

be used. It 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!

6. The neurotic need for social recognition or prestige.Normal: We are social creatures, and sexual ones, and like to be

appreciated. Neurotic: These people are overwhelmingly concerned with

appearances and popularity. They fear being ignored, be thought plain, "uncool," or "out of it."

7. The neurotic need for personal admiration.

Normal: We need to be admired for inner qualities as well as outer ones. We need to feel important and valued.

Neurotic: Some people are more desperate, and need to remind everyone of their importance.

Their fear is of being thought nobodies, unimportant and meaningless.

8. The neurotic need for personal achievement.

Normal: There is nothing intrinsically wrong with achievement far from it!

Neurotic: Some people are obsessed with personal achievement. 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.

9. The neurotic need for self-sufficiency and independence. Normal: We should all cultivate some autonomy. Neurotic: Some people feel that they shouldn't ever need anybody. They

tend to refuse help and are often reluctant to commit to a relationship.

10. The neurotic need for perfection and unassailability.

Normal: To become better and better at life and our special interests.

Neurotic: 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.

Coping StrategiesNeurotic needs are classified into three coping strategies

Compliance Aggression Withdrawal

Coping Strategies• Compliance: Neurotic

Needs one, two and three.

• Moving- toward strategy and self- effacing solution.

• This person will say that: “I should be sweet, self sacrificing and saintly”.

Coping Strategies• Aggression:• Neurotic Needs 4-

8.• Moving against and

expansive solution.• This person will say

that: “ I should powerful, recognized and a winner”.

Coping Strategies• Withdrawal:• Neurotic Needs 9,

10 and 3.• Moving away and

resigning solution.• This person will say

that: “I should be independent, aloof and perfect”.

Self Theory• Self is the core of your being.• If you are healthy you have an

accurate consumption of who you are.• Neurotic has split consumption.• Despise self-if you see others despise

you then you take that inside you.• Ideal self- if your lacking in some

way, there is some ideals that you should living up to.

• Ideal self is not a positive goal because it is unrealistic and ultimately impossible.

Self TheoryHealthy Person Neurotic Person

REAL SELF

SELF-REALIZATION

Despised SELF

Ideal SELF

Vaccilation

Womb Envy• A male counterpart

to penis envy by S. Freud.

• Womb envy- is in some men who feels envious of a woman’s ability to bear children.

• Carrying, bearing and nurturing their child.

That’s All!!! #Aldub u

Reference• Personality Theories: Karen Horney by Dr. C.

George Boeree. Copyright 1997, 2006 C. George Boeree.– Karen Horney's best book is Neurosis and Human Growth (1950). – She wrote more "pop" versions called The Neurotic Personality of our

Time (1937) and Our Inner Conflicts (1945). Her thoughts on therapy can be found in New Ways in Psychoanalysis (1939). For an early insight into feminist psychology, read Feminine Psychology (1967).

– And to read about selfanalysis read SelfAnalysis (1942).• Horney’s Theory by Kendra Cherry (Psychology

Expert ), About Education.com

Reference• Disclaimer: I don’t personally own all

the pictures being used. This is just for illustration purposes so that I can remember the examples so easily. Its easy to relate to things that you can relate, right? I got pictures from…

• 9Gag• Spiderman• Mean Girls• Selfie• Just you• And for some just google it.• Google has everything.

Remember Adolf Hitler? He could have been a

good painter rather than an evil killer.

Only if he has a happy childhood .

Make every child live a joyful childhood, so they

can remember good things when they grow up.

-Vee