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Personality
 Characteristic patterns of behaving,
thinking, and feeling.
Personality Theory
 The attempt to describe and explain
how people are similar, how they are
different, and why every individual is
unique.
Psychodynamic Theories
 Theories that explain behavior and
personality in terms of unconscious
energy
dynamics
within
the
individual.
Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)
 Founder of psychoanalysis
 Proposed the first complete theory of
personality.
Psychoanalysis
 Therapy focuses on unconscious
processes and how they influence
personality.
Freud’s 3 levels of Consciousness
 Conscious
 Preconscious
 Unconscious
Conscious
 All things we are aware of at any
given moment; thoughts, feelings,
sensations, or memories.
Preconscious
 Everything that can, with a little effort,
be brought into consciousness.
Unconscious
 Inaccessible warehouse of anxietyproducing thoughts and drives.
ID
 Contains life (sex) and death
(aggressive)
instincts;
operates
according to the pleasure principle.
 Does not distinguish between reality
and fantasy.
Ego
 Logical, rational part of personality;
operates according to the reality of
principle.
 Mediator between ID and Superego.
Superego
 Moral system of the personality
consists of conscience and ego ideal.
 Internalization of society’s and
parental moral standards.
The Pleasure Principle
 Drive toward immediate gratification
is the most fundamental human
motive.
Sources of Energy
 Eros - life instinct, perpetuates life,
 Thanatos
death
instinct,
aggression, self-destructive actions.
Libido
 Sexual energy or motivation.
ID: “I want”
SUPEREGO: “I Should”
EGO: “I will”
Psychosexual Stages
 In Freudian theory, the childhood
stages of development during which
the id’s pleasure on different parts of
the body.
 A person can become “fixated” or
stuck at a stage.
Oral (0-2)
 Infant achieves gratification through
oral activities such as feeding, thumb
sucking, and babbling.
Anal (2-3)
 The child learns to respond to some
of the demands of society such as
bowel and bladder control.
Phallic (3-7)
 The child learns to realize the
difference between males and
females and comes aware of
sexuality.
- Oedipus complex - boy feels
hostility and jealousy towards their
fathers but knows their father is more
powerful.
- Castration Anxiety - results in boys
who feel their father will punish them
by castrating them.
- Electra Complex - Girls also have
incestuous feelings for their dad and
compete with their mother.
- Penis Envy - a little girl suffers from
deprivation and loss and blames her
mother for “sending her into the world
of insufficiently equipped” causing
her to resent her mother.
Latency (7-11)
 The child continues his or her
development, but sexual urges are
relatively quiet.
 Sexuality is repressed due to intense
anxiety caused by Oedipus complex.
Genital (11-adult)
 The growing adolescent shakes off
old dependencies’ ad learns to deal
maturely with the opposite sex.
Defense Mechanisms
 Unconscious self-deceptions
 Unconscious mental processes are
employed by the ego to reduce
anxiety by unconsciously distorting
reality.
Repression
 Puts anxiety-producing thoughts,
feelings, and memories into the
unconscious mind.
Denial
 It lets an anxious person refuse to
admit that something unpleasant is
happening.
Regression
 Allows an anxious person to retreat to
a more comfortable, infantile stage of
life.
Reaction Formation
 Replacing an unacceptable wish with
its opposite.
Projection
 Reducing anxiety by attributing
unacceptable impulses or problems,
about yourself to someone else.
Rationalization
 Displaces real, anxiety-provoking
explanations with more comforting
justifications for one’s actions.
 Reasoning away anxiety-producing
thoughts.
Undoing
 Unconsciously
neutralizing
an
anxiety-causing action by doing a
second action that undoes the first.
Displacement
 Shifts an unacceptable impulse
toward a more acceptable or less
threatening object or person.
Sublimation
 A form of displacement in which
sexual urges are channeled into
nonsexual activities that are valued
by society.
Psychoanalytic Therapy Goals
 Make the unconscious conscious
 Strengthen ego
 Analyze childhood and person’s
history and see how past behaviors
are affecting present behaviors.
Methods of Studying the Unconscious
 Free
Association - Freudian
technique
of
exploring
the
unconscious mind by having the
person relax and say whatever
comes to mind no matter how trivial
or embarrassing.
 Projective Tests - tests where a
patient is asked to say whatever
comes to mind as they view an
ambiguous picture.
 Dreams - Freud said dreams were
the “Road to the Unconsciousness”.
 Freudian Slip - These are the wishes
and desires of you unconscious ID.
The interference of an unconscious
subdued wish.
Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961)
 Born July 26, 1875, in Kesswil,
Switzerland.
 He became interested in the etiology
of schizophrenia.
 Jung became more organized about
his theoretical approach and formed
his own theory called Analytical
Psychology.
Psyche
 Originally means “soul” or “spirit” but
increasingly turned “mind”.
 “Total personality”
 It encompasses one’s thoughts and
feelings.
Jung divided the Psyche into Three Main
Realms:
 Consciousness - one’s field of
awareness.
 Ego - the subject of all
personal
facts
of
consciousness. Acts as a
gatekeeper.
 Personal
Unconsciousness
certain events that have happened
but have been absorbed subliminally.
 Subliminal - below the
threshold. Content which the
ego rejects.
 Complex
complexes
populate
the
personal
unconscious.
 Collective
Unconsciousness made up of universal and of regular
occurrence.
Archetypes
 “The archaic heritage of humanity”
 Are
cognitive
categories,
or
predispositions that humas are born
to think, feel, perceive, and act in
specific ways.
 Cannot be perceived directly.
Common Archetypes
 Mother - nurturing; comforting
 Wise old man - guidance; knowledge;
wisdom
 The hero - champion; defender;
rescuer
 Father - authority figure; stern;
powerful
 Child - longing for innocence; rebirth;
salvation
 Maiden - innocence; desire; purity
 Trickster
deceiver;
liar;
troublemaker
Archetypes are not impulses.
The Persona
 Is how we present ourselves to the
world.
The Shadow
 Is an archetype that consists of the
sex and life instincts.
The Anima or Animus
 The anima is a feminine image in the
male psyche.
 The animus is a male image in the
female psyche.
The Self
 Is an archetype that represents the
unification of the unconsciousness
and consciousness of an individual.
 The archetypes of archetypes.
The Mandala
 It represents the strivings of the
collective unconscious for balance,
unity, and wholeness.
The Evolutionary Basis of Archetypes
 Expect to find that the mind is
organized.
The Uniqueness of the Individual
 Archetype ↔ Individual
A paramount importance for each individual
to confront and integrate the contents of their
unconscious.
2.People’s subjective perceptions shape
their behavior and personality.
Dynamics of Personality
 Causality - behavior is influenced by
childhood experiences.
 Teleology - present events are
motivated by goals and aspirations
for the future.
 Progression - adaptation to the
outside world involves forward flow of
psychic energy.
 Regression - adaptation to the inside
world involves backward flow of
psychic energy.
Individuation
 A path to self-knowledge.
Two Orientations of the Psyche
 Introversion - inward, towards the
subjective world of the individual;
introvert is someone who tends to be
quiet.
 Extraversion - outward, towards the
external environment; extravert tends
to be sociable.
Functions of Thought
 Sensing - detects the presence of
things; indicates that something is
there but does not indicate what it is.
 Thinking - tells what a thing is; gives
names to things that are sensed.
 Feeling - tells whether a thing is
acceptable or unacceptable.
 Intuiting - hunches about past or
future
events
when
factual
information is not available.
Methods Used by Jung
 Words Association - Purpose: to
uncover feeling-toned complexes
 Dream Analysis - Purpose: to
uncover elements from the personal
and collective unconscious.
 Active Imagination - Purpose: to
reveal images emerging from the
unconscious.
Alfred Adler (1870-1937)
 Born 1870 in Vienna
 Individual Psychology
Individual Psychology
 Presents an optimistic view of people
while resting heavily on the notion of
social interest, that is, a feeling of
oneness with all humankind.
Adlerian Theory
 People are born with weak, inferior
bodies, a condition that leads to
feelings of inferiority and a
consequent dependence on other
people.
Tenets
4.The value of all human activity must be
seen from the viewpoint of social interest.
1.The one dynamic force behind people’s
behavior is the striving for success or
superiority.
3.Personality
consistent.
is
unified
and
self-
5.The self-consistent personality structure
develops into a person’s style of life.
6.Style of life is molded by people’s creative
power.
Striving for Success or Superiority

Feelings that motivate a person to
strive for either superiority or
success.
The Final Goal


The final goals have great
significance it unifies the personality
and
renders
all
behavior
comprehensible.
A product of creative power people’s
ability to freely shape their behavior
and create their own personality.
The Striving Force as Compensation

The striving force is innate, but its
nature and direction are due both
feelings of inferiority and to the goal
of superiority.
Striving for Personal Superiority

Their strivings inferiority, or the
presence of an inferiority complex.
Striving for Success

Social progress is more important to
them than personal credit.
Subjective Perceptions


People are motivated not by what is
true but by their subjective
perceptions of what is true. - fictions.
Fictionalism suggests that we
create a goal early in life and the goal
guides our style of life and vies unity
to our personalities.
Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality

Adler believed that all all of our
behaviors are directed toward a
single purpose and that entire
personality
functions
a
selfconsistent manner.
Social Interest

Can be defined as an attitude of
relatedness with humanity in general
as well as empathy for each member
of the human community.
Importance of Social Interest

Social interest is the “sole criterion of
human values” and is the only gauge
to be used in judging the worth of a
person.
Excuses


Aggression


Style of life

Refers how to live your life, how you
handle problems and interpersonal
relations.
The
most
common
of
the
safeguarding tendencies.
Are typically expressed in the “yes,
but” or “if only” format.

Depreciation - is the tendency to
undervalue
other
people’s
achievements and to overvalue one’s
own.
Accusation - is the tendency to
blame others for one’s failures and to
seek revenge, thereby safeguarding
one’s own tenuous self-esteem.
Self-accusation - is the converse of
deprecation with the same goal of
superiority.
Creative Power

People’s ability to freely shape their
behavior and create their own
personality.
Abnormal Development

One factor that underlies all type of
maladjustment is underdeveloped
social interests.
Withdrawal



Neurotic





They tend to overcompensate.
Compensation - making up for or
overcoming a weakness.
Overcompensation - exaggerated
effort to cover up a weakness.
Neurotic Patterns


Inferiority Complex - individuals
who feel highly inadequate.
Superiority Complex - exaggerated
feelings of once importance.
(They live in a mistaken style of life)
External Factors in Maladjustment



Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies
- exaggerated feelings of inferiority
which leads to being overly
concerned for themselves and a lack
of concern for others.
Pampered Style of Life - children
who are given too much attention and
overprotection from their parents.
Neglected Style of Life - children
who are given too little attention by
their parents.
Safeguarding Tendencies

Are protective devices that ward off
feelings of inferiority and maintain
their current style of life.
Is halting personality development by
running away from difficulties through
distance.
Moving Backward - like regression;
safeguarding one’s fictional goal of
superiority.
Standing Still - not as severe as
moving backwards; not being
responsible.
Hesitating - being too compulsive;
behaving in an obsessive orderly
manner.
Constructing Obstacles - by
overcoming self-created obstacles,
the individual preserves their selfesteem and their prestige.
Applications of Individual Psychology
 Family Constellation - placement of
a child according to the time of his
birth.
 Early Recollections - the individual
can
reconstitute
in
present
experience as mental pictures.
 Dreams - cannot foretell the future
but can provide clues for solving
future problems.
 Psychotherapy - results from lack of
courage, exaggerated feelings of
inferiority, and underdeveloped social
interest.
Concept of Humanity
 Emphasizes “free will and choice”.
Herbert “Harry” Stack Sullivan (18921949)
 Interpersonal Theory
 An
American
Neo-Freudian
psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.
 His
theory
belongs
in
the
Psychodynamic Perspective.
Personality is based on other people. In
other words, individuals have no
personality if we don’t interact with other
people.
Tensions
 Sullivan saw personality as an
energy system (same with Freud
and Jung).
 The potentiality for actions or actions.
 Energy
Transformations
transforms tension into either covert
or overt behaviors.
Covert – indirectly observable
Overt – directly observable
Two types of tensions: needs
(productive actions) & anxiety (disintegrative
behaviors)
Needs
 Tensions brought on by biological
imbalance between a person and the
physiochemical environment (inside
and outside the organism).
Example: Need: the need for
achievement.
Energy transformation: the need to
go to school.
 Episodic – needs are episodic.
- Originally
has
biological
component but may also stem
from interpersonal situation.
 General Needs – concerned with
overall well-being.
 Zonal Needs – arise from a particular
area of the body.
 Dynamisms
–
consistent
characteristic modes of behavior.
The most basic interpersonal need is
tenderness.


How
Disjunctive, diffusive and vague.
Cannot explain exactly why you are
experiencing this.
Calls no consistent action for its relief.
The chief disruptive force blocking
the
development
of
healthy
interpersonal relations.
different




is
anxiety
from
Are energy transformations that
become organized as typical
behavior patterns that characterize
a person.
Are of two major classes: (1) those
related to specific zones of the body;
(2) is composed of three categories –
disjunctive,
isolating,
and
conjunctive.
Disjunctive – include destructive
patterns of behavior (malevolence)
Isolating – include behavior patterns
that are unrelated to interpersonal
relations (lust)
Conjunctive – include beneficial
behavior patterns (intimacy, selfsystem).
Malevolence

Characterized by the feeling of living
among one’s enemy.
Intimacy


It grows out of the earlier need for
tenderness.
A dynamism that requires equal
partnership.
Lust


Anxiety



An isolating tendency, requiring no
other person for its satisfaction.
An autoerotic behavior even when
another person is the object of one’s
lust.
Self-System


fear?

Anxiety stems from complex interpersonal
situations;
vaguely
represented
in
awareness.
Fear is more clearly discerned; more easily
pin-pointed.

Energy Transformations




Tensions that are transformed into
actions.
Refers to out behaviors that are
aimed to satisfy needs and reduce
anxiety.
Either covert or overt.
Personifications


Dynamisms
The most complex and inclusive
of all dynamisms.
Develop earlier than intimacy (1218 months).
As it develops, people begin to
form a consistent image of
themselves.
Two
important
security
operations:
Dissociation
–
impulses,
desires, and needs that a person
refuses to allow into awareness.
Selective inattention – refusal to
see those things that we do not
wish to see (control or focal
awareness).
Are certain image of themselves and
others, acquired through various
developmental stages.
May be relatively accurate or may be
grossly distorted.


There are three personifications that
develop during infancy:
(1) Bad-mother
(2) Good-mother
(3) The me

Bad-Mother, Good-Mother




Grows out of the infant’s experiences
with the bad-nipple.
That is, the nipple that does not
satisfy hunger needs.
Almost completely undifferentiated,
inasmuch as it includes everyone
involved in the nursing situation.
Not an accurate image of the “real”
mother but merely the infant’s vague
representation of not being properly
fed.
Experiences
that
are
consensually validated and they
can
be
symbolically
communicated.
This level of cognition becomes
more prevalent as the child
begins
to
develop
formal
language, but it never completely
supplants
prototaxic
and
parataxic cognition.
Me Personifications




Three Me Personifications:
The Bad-Me Personification – is
fashioned from experience of
punishment and disapproval that
infants receive from their mothering
one.
The Good-Me Personification –
results from infants’ experiences with
reward and approval.
The Not-Me Personification – An
infant denies these experiences the
me image so that they become part of
the not-me personification.
Eidetic Personifications


Unrealistic traits or imaginary friends
that many children invent to protect
their self-esteem.
Interpersonal relations that are not
with real people.
Stages of Development
Infancy

Childhood

Levels of Cognition

Refers to ways of perceiving,
imagining, and conceiving.

Prototaxic Level


The earliest and most primitive
experience of an infant.
One way to understand the term is to
imagine the earliest subjective
experiences of a newborn baby.
Parataxic Level

Are prelogical and usually result
when a person assumes a causeand-effect relationship between
two
event
that
occur
coincidentally.
Syntaxic Level
Begins at birth and continues until a
child develops articulate or syntaxic
speech, usually at about age 18 to 24
months.
Begins with the advent of syntaxic
language and continues until the
appearance of the need for
playmates of an equal status.
The age of childhood varies from
culture and from individual to
individual, but in Western Society it
covers the period from about age 18
to 24 months until about age 5 or 6
years.
Juvenile Era

Begins with the appearance of the
need for peers or playmates of equal
status and ends when one finds a
single chum to satisfy the need for
intimacy.
- Sullivan believed a child
should learn to compete,
compromise, and cooperate.
Preadolescence


Begins at age 8 ½ and ends with
adolescence, is a time for intimacy
with one particular person, usually a
person of the same gender.
Sullivan called this process of
becoming a social being the “quiet
miracle of preadolescence”


Related Research

Early Adolescence


Begins with puberty and ends with
the need for sexual love with one
person.
It is marked by the eruption of genital
interest and the advent of lustful
relationships.
Late Adolescence

Begins when young people are able
to feel both lust and intimacy toward
the same person, and it ends in
adulthood when they establish a
lasting love relationship.

A period when people can establish a
love relationship with at least on
significant other person.
Sullivan stated that “this really highly
developed intimacy with another is
not the principal business of life, but
is, perhaps, the principal source of
satisfaction in life”.
Psychological Disorders

Sullivan
believed
that
all
psychological disorders have an
interpersonal origin and can be
understood only with reference to that
patient’s social environment.
Psychotherapy
Sullivan’s interpersonal theory of
personality rests on the assumption
that
unhealthy
personality
development
results
from
interpersonal conflicts and difficulties.
Imaginary Friends


Recognized the importance of having
an imaginary friend, especially during
the childhood stage.
Children do tend to view imaginary
friends as a source of nurturance.
Critique of Sullivan

Adulthood

Psychic disorders grow out of
interpersonal difficulties.
Is aimed at uncovering patient’s
difficulties in relating to others.

Although
Sullivan’s
theory
of
personality is quite comprehensive, it
is not as popular among academic
psychologists as the theories of
Freud, Adler, Jung, or Erik Erikson.
However, the ultimate value of any
theory does not rest on its popularity
but on the six criteria.
SULLIVAN Key Terms and Concepts
• People develop their personality through
interpersonal relationships.
• Experience takes place on three levels—
prototaxic (primitive,
presymbolic),
parataxic
(not
accurately
communicated to others), and
syntaxic (accurate communication).
• Two aspects of experience are tensions
(potential for action) and energy
transformations (actions or behaviors).
• Tensions are of two kinds—needs and anxiety.
• Needs are conjunctive in that they facilitate
interpersonal development.
• Anxiety is disjunctive in that it interferes with the
satisfaction of needs and
is the primary obstacle to establishing healthy
interpersonal relationships.
• Energy transformations become organized into
consistent traits or behavior
patterns called dynamisms.
• Typical dynamisms include malevolence (a
feeling of living in enemy
country), intimacy (a close interpersonal
relationship with a peer of equal
status, and lust (impersonal sexual desires).
• Sullivan’s chief contribution to personality was
his concept of various
developmental stages.
• The first developmental stage is infancy (from
birth to the development
of syntaxic language), a time when an infant’s
primary interpersonal
relationship is with the mothering one.
• During childhood (from syntaxic language to the
need for playmates of
equal status), the mother continues as the most
important interpersonal
relationship, although children of this age often
have an imaginary
playmate.
• The third stage is the juvenile era (from the need
for playmates of equal
status to the development of intimacy), a time
when children should learn
Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 241
competition, compromise, and cooperation—
skills that will enable them to
move successfully through later stages of
development.
• The most crucial stage of development is
preadolescence (from intimacy
with a best friend to the beginning of puberty).
Mistakes made during this
phase are difficult to overcome later.
• During early adolescence young people are
motivated by both intimacy
(usually for someone of the same gender) and
lust (ordinarily for a person
of the opposite gender).
• People reach late adolescence when they are
able to direct their intimacy
and lust toward one other person.
• The successful completion of late adolescence
culminates in adulthood, a
stage marked by a stable love relationship.
• With Sullivan’s psychotherapy, the therapist
serves as a participant
observer and attempts to improve patients’
interpersonal relations.
Karen Danielsen Horney





Born in Eilbek, a small town near
Hamburg, Germany, September 15,
1885.
Entered the University of Freiburg,
becoming one of the first women in
Germany to study medicine.
By 1917, she had written her first
paper on psychoanalysis, “The
Technique
of
Psychoanalytic
Therapy”
Received her MD degree in 1915.
Horney died of cancer on December
4, 1952.
Psychoanalytic Social Theory

Was built on the assumption that
social and cultural conditions,
especially childhood experiences,
are largely responsible for shaping
personality.
Horney and Freud Compared




Horney objected to Freud’s ideas on
feminine psychology.
She stressed the view that
psychoanalysis should move beyond
instinct theory and emphasize the
importance of cultural influences in
shaping personality.
“Man is ruled not by the pleasure
principle alone but by two guiding
principles: safety and satisfaction.”
Her view of humanity is an optimistic
one and is centered on cultural forces
that are amenable.
The Impact of Culture


She repeatedly emphasized cultural
influences as the primary bases for
both neurotic and normal personality
development.
Modern Culture – based on
competition among individuals.
The
Importance
Experiences




of
Childhood
Neurotic conflict can stem from
almost any developmental stage.
Childhood is the age from which the
vast majority of problems arise.
Horney insisted that these debilitating
experiences can almost invariably be
traced to lack of genuine warmth and
affection.
“The sum total of childhood
experiences brings about a certain
character structure, or rather, starts
its development.”
Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
Basic Hostility


When the parents do not satisfy the
child’s needs for safety and
satisfaction.
Children seldom overtly express this
hostility as rage, instead, they
repress their hostility toward their
parents and have no awareness of it.


Basic Anxiety



A feeling of being isolated and
helpless in a world conceived as
potentially hostile.
When repressed hostility then leads
to profound feelings of insecurity and
a vague sense of apprehension.
A feeling of being small, insignificant,
helpless, deserted, endangered, in a
world that is out to abuse, cheat,
attack, humiliate, betray, envy.


Compulsive Drives




Neurotic individuals have the same
problems that affect normal people.
Except neurotics experience them to
a greater degree.
Neurotics do not enjoy misery and
suffering.
Neurotics cannot change their
behavior by free will but must
continually and compulsively protect
themselves against basic anxiety.
Neurotic Needs





These needs were more specific than
the four protective devices discussed
earlier, but they describe the same
basic defensive strategies.
The neurotic need for affection and
approval – neurotics attempt
indiscriminately to please others.
They try to live up to the expectations
of others.
The neurotic need for a powerful
partner – lacking self-confidence,
neurotics try to attach themselves to
a powerful partner. This need
includes an overvaluation of love and
a dread of being alone or deserted.
The neurotic need to restrict one’s
life within narrow borders. –
neurotics frequently strive to remain
inconspicuous, to take second place,
and to be content with very little. They
downgrade their own abilities and
dread making demands on others.
The neurotic need for power –
power and affection are perhaps the
two greatest neurotic needs. The
need for power is usually combined
with the needs for prestige and


possession and manifests itself as
the need to control others and to
avoid feelings of weakness or
stupidity.
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.
The neurotic need for social
recognition or prestige – some
people combat basic anxiety by trying
to be first, to be important, or to
attract attention to themselves.
The neurotic need for personal
admiration – neurotics has a need to
be admired for what they are rather
than for what they possess. Their
inflated
self-esteem
must
be
continually fed by the admiration and
approval of others.
The neurotic need for ambition and
personal achievement – neurotics
often have a strong drive to be the
best—the best salesperson, the best
bowler, the best lover. They must
defeat other people in order to
confirm their superiority.
The neurotic need for selfsufficiency and independence –
many neurotics have a strong need to
move away from people, thereby
proving that they can get along
without others. The playboy who
cannot be tied down by any woman
exemplifies this neurotic need.
The neurotic need for perfection
and unassailability – by striving
relentlessly for perfection, neurotics
receive “proof” of their self-esteem
and personal superiority. They dread
making
mistakes
and
having
personal flaws, and they desperately
attempt to hide their weaknesses
from others.
Neurotic Trends

The list of 10 neurotic needs could
be grouped into three general
categories, each relating to a
person’s basic attitude toward self
and others.
o Moving toward people –
refers to a neurotic need to
protect
oneself
against
feelings of helplessness.
o Moving against people –
just as compliant people
assume that everyone is nice,
aggressive people take for
granted that everyone is
hostile.
o Moving away from people –
in order to solve the basic
conflict of isolation, some
people behave in a detached
manner and adopt this
neurotic trend. (needs for
privacy).
The Neurotic Search for Glory


Referred to as the comprehensive
drive toward actualizing the ideal self.
Horney referred to this drive as the
tyranny of the should.
o Need for perfection – refers
to the drive to mold the whole
personality into the idealized
self.
o Neurotic ambition – the
compulsive drive toward
superiority.
o Drive toward a vindictive
triumph
–
the
most
destructive element of all.
Neurotic Claims

Neurotic claims grow out of normal
needs and wishes, they are quite
different.
Neurotic Pride


A false pride based not on a realistic
view of the true self on a spurious
image of the idealized self.
Is based on an idealized image of self
and is usually loud proclaimed in
order to protect and support a
glorified view of oneself.
Feminine Psychology

An area of psychology that focuses
on the political, economic, and social
issues that pervasively confront
women.
Psychotherapy

Intrapsychic Conflicts


Intrapsychic processes originate from
interpersonal experiences; but as
they become part of a person’s belief
system, they develop a life of their
own.
An existence separated from the
interpersonal conflicts that gave them
life.
The Idealized Self-Image

Is an attempt to solve conflicts by
painting a godlike picture of oneself.
Self-Hatred

Is an interrelated yet equally irrational
and powerful tendency to despise
one’s real self.
Horney believed that neuroses grow
out of basic conflict that usually
begins in childhood.
 To help patients gradually grow in
the direction of self-realization.
Critique of Horney
 Horney’s Social Psychoanalytic
Theory provides interesting
perspectives on the nature of
humanity
 But it suffers from lack of current
research that might support her
suppositions.
HORNEY Key Terms and Concepts
∙ Horney insisted that social and cultural
influences were more important than
biological ones.
∙ Children who lack warmth and affection fail
to meet their needs for safety and
satisfaction.
∙ These feelings of isolation and
helplessness trigger basic anxiety, or
feelings of isolation and helplessness in a
potentially hostile world.
∙ The inability of people to use different
tactics in their relationships with others
generates basic conflict: that is, the
incompatible tendencies to move toward,
against, and away from people.
∙ Horney called the tendencies to move
toward, against, or away from people the
three neurotic trends.
∙ Healthy people solve their basic conflict by
using all three neurotic trends, whereas
neurotics compulsively adopt only one of
these trends.
∙ The three neurotic trends (moving toward,
against, or away from people) are a
combination of 10 neurotic needs that
Horney had earlier identified.
∙ Both healthy and neurotic people
experience intrapsychic conflicts that have
become part of their belief system. The two
major intrapsychic conflicts are the idealized
self-image and self-hatred.
∙ The idealized self-image results in
neurotics’ attempts to build a godlike picture
of themselves.
∙ Self-hatred is the tendency for neurotics to
hate and despise their real self.
∙ Any psychological differences between
men and women are due to cultural and
social expectations and not to biology.
∙ The goal of Horneyian psychotherapy is to
bring about growth toward actualization of
the real self.