Theories of Personality
Horney
Chapter 6
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© 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Outline
• Overview of Psychoanalytic Social Theory
• Biography of Horney
• Introduction to Psychoanalytic Social
Theory
• Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
• Compulsive Drives
• Intrapsychic Conflicts
Cont’d
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Outline
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Feminine Psychology
Psychotherapy
Related Research
Critique of Horney
Concept of Humanity
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Overview of Psychoanalytic
Social Theory
• Social and Cultural Conditions Largely
Responsible for Shaping Personality
• When Needs Are Not Met in Childhood,
Basic Hostility and Anxiety Arise
• Combat Basic Anxiety in Three Ways:
– Moving toward people
– Moving against people
– Moving away from people
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Biography of Horney
• Born in Eilbek (near Hamburg) in 1885
• Youngest of two children born to an older sea
captain and his young wife
• Entered University of Freiburg in 1906
– One of the first women in Germany admitted to medical
school, where she specialized in psychiatry
• Analyzed in 1910 by Karl Abraham, one of
Freud’s close associates
• Published The Technique of Psychoanalytic
Therapy in 1917
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Biography (cont’d)
• In 1932, Horney left Germany to become
Associate Director on Chicago Psychoanalytic
Institute
• Increasingly abandoned orthodox psychoanalysis
in favor of a more socially oriented theory
• Published Neurosis and Human Growth in 1950
• Founded her own clinic
• Died in New York in 1952
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Psychoanalytic Social Theory
•
Horney and Freud Compared
–
Horney’s criticisms of Freud’s Theories
1. Orthodoxy leads to theoretical and clinical
stagnation
2. Inaccurate views of feminine psychology
3. Should move beyond instinct and examine culture
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The Impact of Culture
The Importance of Childhood Experiences
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Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
• Basic hostility
– Arise when parents do not satisfy child’s needs
for safety and satisfaction
• Basic anxiety
– Repressed hostility leads to feelings of
insecurity and apprehension
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Compulsive Drives
• Neurotics Repeat Same Unproductive
Strategy
• Neurotic Needs
– Attempts reduce basic anxiety
– 10 categories
• Neurotic Trends Are Attitudes Toward Self
and Others, and Include
– Moving toward people
– Moving against people
– Moving away from people
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Intrapsychic Conflicts
• Originate from Interpersonal Experiences
• The Idealized Self-Image Includes Three Aspects:
– Neurotic search for glory
– Neurotic claims
– Neurotic pride
• Self-Hatred
– Neurotic individuals dislike themselves because their
real self does not match insatiable demands of their
idealized view of self
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Feminine Psychology
• Psychological differences between men and
women are due to culture and social
expectations rather than to anatomy
• View of the Oedipus complex was that any
sexual attraction or hostility of child to
parent would be the result of learning and
not biology
– Found concept of “penis envy” untenable
– If that existed, should also be “womb envy”
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Psychotherapy
• Therapy focused on development of selfrealization through self-analysis
• Utilizes same techniques as Freud
• Successful when patients can assume
responsibility for their psychological development
• Goal of Horneyian psychotherapy:
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Help patients grow to self-realization
Give up their idealized self-image
Relinquish their neurotic search for glory
Change self-hatred to self-acceptance
Focus on love, mastery, and freedom
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Related Research
• The Neurotic Compulsion to Avoid the
Negative
– Robinson et al. (2007)
• While most research has had an understandable
negative bias, recent research has been investigating
some benefits of neuroticism: It is possible to be a
“successful neurotic” in that neurotic skill at
avoiding negative outcomes improves daily mood
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Critique of Horney
• Horney’s Theory Is:
– Moderate on Internal Consistency and
Parsimony
– Low on Falsifiability, Generating
Research, and Guiding Action
– Very Low on Organizing Knowledge
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Concept of Humanity
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Free Choice over Determinism
Optimism over Pessimism
Social Influence over Biology
Causality and Teleology, and
Conscious and Unconscious Play
Equal Roles
• Similarities over Uniqueness
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