Karen Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory

A set of 100 vocabulary flashcards covering the concepts, biography, and theories of Karen Horney's Psychoanalytic Social Theory based on the lecture notes provided lecture notes.

Psychoanalytic Social Theory

A theory of personality that asserts social and cultural conditions are largely responsible for shaping personality.

Basic Hostility

A condition that arises in childhood when parents do not satisfy a child's needs for safety and satisfaction.

Basic Anxiety

A feeling of being isolated and helpless in a world conceived as potentially hostile; the nutritive soil out of which neurosis may develop.

Moving towards people

One of the three ways people combat anxiety, involving behaviors that seek affection and approval.

Moving against people

One of the three ways people combat anxiety, involving aggressive behaviors and a need for power or exploitation.

Moving away from people

One of the three ways people combat anxiety, characterized by detachment and a need for independence.

Childhood Experiences

The period primarily responsible for personality development and the sum total that starts character structure development.

Safety and Satisfaction

The two primary needs children must have met by parents to avoid basic hostility.

Genuine Love and Healthy Discipline

Conditions needed in childhood to provide feelings of safety and permit growth in accordance with the real self.

Repression of Hostility

The process where children, unable to express rage overtly, hide their hostility, leading to basic anxiety.

Reactive Hostility

Hostility developed as a defense against parents whom children feel threatened by.

Affection (Defense)

A protective device against basic anxiety that operates on the logic: 'If you love me, you will not hurt me.'

Submissiveness (Defense)

A protective device against basic anxiety that operates on the logic: 'If I give in, I will not be hurt.'

Withdrawal (Defense)

Attempts to become independent of others and not rely on anyone for internal or external needs.

Striving for Power, Prestige, or Possession

A protective device that seeks security through success, superiority, and the belief that power prevents harm.

Protective Devices (Unhealthy)

Interpersonal strategies that become unhealthy when people feel compelled to rely on them and cannot employ a variety of other strategies.

Compulsive Drives

Salient characteristics of neurotic drives where individuals repeat the same strategy unproductively to protect against basic anxiety.

Neurotic Need for Affection and Approval

A drive to be liked, please others, and avoid being sensitive to rejection or criticism.

Neurotic Need for a Powerful Partner

The need to be centered on a partner with an exaggerated importance on love and fear of abandonment.

Neurotic Need to Restrict One’s Life Within Narrow Borders

A drive to remain inconspicuous, be undemanding, and undervalue one's own talents.

Neurotic Need for Power

The seeking of power for its own sake, praising strength and despising weakness.

Neurotic Need to Exploit Others

Viewing others in terms of gains, priding oneself on manipulation to obtain ideas, power, money, or sex.

Neurotic Need for Social Recognition or Prestige

Evaluating everything based on external acclaim and a fear of public embarrassment or loss of status.

Neurotic Need for Personal Admiration

The narcissistic need to be admired based on an imagined self-view rather than reality.

Neurotic Need for Personal Achievement

A result of basic insecurity where individuals must top earlier successes and constant fear of failure.

Neurotic Need for Self-Sufficiency and Independence

A 'loner' mentality that distances oneself from others to avoid being tied down.

Neurotic Need for Perfection and Unassailability

A relentless striving for perfection to prove self-esteem and hide flaws from others.

Neurotic Trends

Three main categories (moving toward, against, away) into which Horney grouped the ten neurotic needs.

Compliant People

Individuals who move toward people to protect against helplessness and seek responsibility from others.

Morbid Dependency

A term Horney used for the neurotic need to seek a powerful partner, which anticipated 'co-dependency.'

Aggressive People

Individuals who move against people, assuming everyone is hostile and needing to exploit others for benefit.

Detached Type

Individuals who move away from people to solve the conflict of isolation by valuing privacy and aloofness.

Conscious Awareness (Normal vs. Neurotic)

Normal people are completely conscious of their strategies, while neurotics are unaware of their basic attitude.

Freedom of Choice (Normal vs. Neurotic)

Normal individuals are free to choose their actions, whereas neurotics are forced to act by severe conflicts.

Intrapsychic Conflicts

Internal struggles such as the idealized self-image and self-hatred that arise from interpersonal experiences.

Self-Realization

The natural human tendency toward growth that can be impeded by early negative influences.

Alienation from Self

A feeling of being disconnected from one's true identity, leading to the creation of an idealized self-image.

Idealized Self-Image

An extravagantly positive view of oneself that endows the individual with infinite powers and unlimited capabilities.

Neurotic Search for Glory

The process of incorporating the idealized self into all aspects of life, including goals and relations.

Tyranny of the Should

The complex set of 'shoulds' and 'should nots' used by neurotics to strive toward an imaginary picture of perfection.

Neurotic Ambition

A compulsive drive toward superiority, such as trying to be the most saintly or the best student.

Drive toward Vindictive Triumph

The most destructive element of the search for glory, aimed at putting others to shame or defeating them.

Neurotic Claims

The belief that because one is special, one is entitled to be treated in accordance with their idealized view by the world.

Neurotic Pride

A false pride based on the spurious image of the idealized self rather than a realistic view.

Self-Hatred

Despising oneself because the real self cannot match the insatiable demands of the idealized self-image.

Relentless Demand on the Self

A form of self-hatred exemplified by the tyranny of should.

Merciless Self-Accusation

A form of self-hatred involving constantly berating oneself.

Self-Contempt

The act of belittling, disparaging, and ridiculing oneself as an expression of self-hatred.

Self-Frustration

Self-hatred designed to actualize an inflated self-image that results in being shackled by taboos.

Self-Torment

A category of self-hatred where the main intention is to inflict harm or suffering on oneself.

Self-Destructive Actions (Physical)

Behaviors such as overeating, abusing alcohol, or working too hard expressed as self-hatred.

Self-Destructive Actions (Psychological)

Actions like quitting a job when it becomes fulfilling, enacted as a form of self-hatred.

Feminine Psychology

Horney's field of study asserting basic anxiety is at the core of gender-based subjugation and humiliation.

Oedipus Complex (Horney's Critique)

Viewed as an expression of the neurotic need for love due to environmental conditions, not biology.

Womb Envy

Horney's concept of the male desire to have a baby, proposed as a counter to Freud's penis envy.

Masculine Protest

A pathological belief that men are superior to women, leading to a neurotic desire to be a man.

Goal of Psychotherapy

To help patients grow toward self-realization and change self-hatred into an acceptance of the real self.

Self-Analysis

The ultimate foundation of successful therapy, though encouraged by a therapist.

Dream Interpretation (Horney)

The view that dreams are attempts to solve conflicts, either neurotically or healthily.

Free Association (Horney)

A technique where patients say everything that comes to mind to reveal their idealized self-image.

Compulsivity (Healthy vs. Neurotic)

The prime difference between the two is the degree of compulsivity used to move toward, against, or away from people.

Social Influences

The primary external factors Horney emphasized in the development of personality.

Helpless, Hostile, and Detached

The three types of neurotics Horney identified with little emphasis on individual differences within the groups.

Vindictive Triumph Source

Grows out of childhood desires to take revenge for real or imagined humiliations.

Indignant or Bewildered

The reaction of neurotics when their neurotic claims are not met by others.

Workaholic Behavior

A physical self-destructive action mentioned as an expression of self-hatred.

Self-Estimation by Neurotics

Material possessions and professional accomplishments are evaluated based solely on prestige value.

Unassailability

A quality sought by neurotics to hide weaknesses and avoid mistakes.

Privacy and Independence

The underlying needs expressed through the strategy of moving away from people.

Aloof and Unapproachable

The typical outward appearance of the detached individual.

Insoluble Conflicts

The type of internal struggles experienced by neurotics that limit them to a single trend.

Saintly and Good

The way compliant people seek to glorify themselves in their idealized image.

Strong and Heroic

The way aggressive people seek to glorify themselves in their idealized image.

Wise and Self-Sufficient

The way detached people seek to glorify themselves in their idealized image.

Emotional Experiences

What must accompany self-understanding for psychotherapy to be effective.

Identity Stability

The need that drives people to create an idealized self-image when they feel alienated.