Born “Karen Danielson” in Hamburg, Germany,
in 1885
Father was a stern, authoritarian sea captain
(age 50 when she was born)
Mother was a sophisticated, attractive woman
named Clotilde, who was 18 years younger
Had a son Berndt and finally Karen, who was
the youngest in a family of stepsiblings.
Did not have a good bond with father but was
close to mother.
Decided to become a physician because she
knew she wasn’t pretty and decided she needed
to compensate by being intelligent.
Married Oskar Horney, a political science
student, and had three daughters.
Struggled with depression throughout life and
had several affairs.
Family went bankrupt in 1923, and both Karen
and Oskar fell into a deep depression. They
separated in 1926 and divorced in 1939.
Horney believed, as Adler did, that a child’s
discovery of his own helplessness and ensuing
struggle for individuality and control molds
much of the self.
Believed strongly in the importance of selfrealization and growth of each individuals.
Like Adler, she was focused on the social world
and viewed disturbed interpersonal conflicts as
the core of both healthy and unhealthy
(neurotic) development.
Disagreed with Freud’s notion of penis envy as
the source of women’s feelings of inferiority
It is women’s treatment in society and
overemphasis on the woman’s need to secure
the love of a man that causes feelings of
inferiority.
Women desire “masculine” things in order to
gain power; they want the autonomy and
control associated with maleness (not a penis
itself…just the power associated with it).
Parental indifference—the basic evil—is the root cause
of basic anxiety, which is the child’s fear of being
alone, helpless, and insecure arising from lack of
warmth, stability, respect, and involvement of parents.
Children feel powerless and must repress any basic
hostility toward the powerful adults in their world.
Agreed with Freud that unconscious, irrational motives
that develop in childhood drive people, but she
thought that these motives arise from social conflicts
within the family and within society.
Basic anxiety can turn both outward toward everyone
and inward toward self. Neurosis results.
Despised Self—results when basic anxiety and
hostility towards parents turns inward toward
self
Ideal Self—created in the attempt to restructure
the despised self. “Tyranny of the Should”
Real Self—the inner core of personality that we
perceive about ourselves, including our
potential for self-realization.
Consists of feelings of inferiority and
shortcomings
Often based on others’ negative evaluations of
us and our resulting feelings of helplessness
Creates relentless demands on self
Merciless self-accusation
Self-contempt
Self-frustration
Self-torment
Self-destructive actions & impulses
What one views as perfection and hopes to
achieve
Molded by perceived inadequacies
Tyranny of the should—the litany of things we
should’ve done differently and which we
torment ourselves
The composite of all of our “shoulds”
Drive toward actualizing the ideal self is called
the neurotic search for glory.
Manifests itself in 3 ways:
Need for perfection (attempt to mold whole
personality into the ideal self)
Neurotic ambition (compulsive drive toward
superiority; desire to excel at everything, often
channeled into area in which one is most likely to
succeed)
Drive toward a vindictive triumph (“its chief aim is
to put others to shame or defeat them through
one’s very success; or to attain the power…to inflict
suffering on them—mostly of a humiliating kind”)
Most destructive of the three
NOT to help someone achieve his or her real
self but to accept the Real Self.
Real self is the true core of one’s being.
It contains all the potential of growth and health
(possible self)
It’s damaged by parental indifference.
The alienation from this and adoption of the
idealized self is called the core neurotic conflict.
Someone who is alienated from her real self
becomes neurotic and develops an interpersonal
coping strategy to “solve” this conflict.
People develop one of three basic styles:
Moving Toward people: Compliant Personality
Moving Against People: Aggressive Personality
Moving Away from people: Detached Personality
Horney called this “self-effacing solution”
Qualities of martyrdom, helplessness, & suffering
Always attempting to make others happy
Always trying to gain love and secure affection and
approval from others
Overidentification with Despised Self; Ideal Self is the
Despised Self
They try to disguise what they believe to be true of
themselves in order to get others to love them
May mask a need to compete, excel or dominate
May mask feelings of rage, anger, and hostility.
The “expansive solution”—the ultimate attempt to
actualize the ideal self
Striving for power, recognition, and admiration of
others to protect against feelings of helplessness
Overidentification with Ideal Self
Similar to superiority complex—believe that everything
they wished they were is really who they are, and
they’re trying to get others to see that so they can
reaffirm it for themselves.
Success and prestige are measures of self-worth.
Driven by anxiety, hostility, and insecurity.
The solution of resignation—resigned to emotionally
flat life
Withdrawal of any emotional investment from
interpersonal relationships to avoid being hurt
Want to overcome the Despised Self but feel incapable
of ever becoming the Ideal Self
See themselves as unworthy of love and attention from
others but feel unable to achieve anything greater.
Causes them to hide behind independence and
solitude; intense need for self-sufficiency and
perfection.
Horney thought that psychologically healthy
people are a mixture of all three of these selfprotective approaches.
For neurotics, a single type will dominate,
though the other two will remain influential in
the unconscious.
The focus on a single coping strategy is known
as the neurotic trend—a predominant strategy
by which a neurotic person defends against
anxiety.
Helped move psychoanalytic theory away from
the purely biological, anatomical, and
individualistic emphases
Emphasized the importance of a warm, stable
family and the larger impact of society and
culture; influenced child-rearing practices even
today
Rejected that women are weak & submissive
Emphasized the distress of the “tyranny of the
shoulds” and insisted people could overcome
their unconscious demons.
Creation of blind spots
Type of denial
Refusal to see discrepancy between behaviors and
idealized self
Compartmentalization
Life compartmentalized with different rules for
each
What happens in one has no effect or link to
another
Situational ethics
Rationalization
Using logical, plausible, but inaccurate excuses to
justify one’s perceived weaknesses, failures, or
inconsistencies
Excessive self-control
Avoidance of emotions (good or bad)
Arbitrary rightness
Because of difficulty in taking action, will appear to
arbitrarily make decisions (showing one is
arbitrarily right or in charge)
Dogmatism
Elusiveness
Postpones making any decisions or voicing opinions
If I’m not committed to anything, then I can’t be
wrong. If I’m not wrong, I can’t be criticized.
Cynicism
Doesn’t believe in anything
By not believing in anything, I am immune to the
disappointment of being committed to something
shown to be false.
Moving Toward
Moving Against
Moving Away
1. Affection and
approval
3. Power
8. Self-sufficiency
4. Exploitation
9. Perfection
5. Recognition and
Prestige
10. Narrow limits
1. A domineering
partner
6. Admiration
7. Ambition and
achievement