Karen Horney (1885-1952)

“For the very reason that love in our civilization is so rarely a genuine affection, maltreatment and betrayal abound.”

Horney - Background

• Family

  • Was Norwegian living in Germany

  • Father was a Norwegian sea captain who was 18 years older than her mother

  • Karen was second born in this marriage (father had 4 children previously)

  • Father was very stern and controlling – many arguments!

• Education

  • According to father, education was “man’s domain”

  • Karen’s grandmother received a BA (unusual at that time), and Karen vowed to disobey her father

• Women’s Rights

  • Karen went to school since father was at sea so much

  • Wrote of the value of women in society

  • Went to medical school (2300 men, 58 women)

• Marriage

  • Married a lawyer late in her medical training and had a son

  • Stress of school/parenthood led to depression (attempted suicide) … Started studying Freud’s ideas

• United States

  • Marriage dissolved and she moved to US

  • Wasn’t allowed to join Psychoanalytic Institute, so she founded the American Institution of Psychoanalysis

Horney vs. Freud

• Psychosexual stages are not entirely correct

  • Penis envy and electra complexes are bogus!

• Personality is largely driven by results of interpersonal conflicts (not sexual ones)!

• Gender differences are the result of socialization

Normal Personality Development

• Children develop “basic confidence” in themselves and others

• Most likely when parents convey:

  • Predictable warmth

  • Interest

  • respect

Abnormal Development

• Child feels . . .

  • Small, helpless, deserted, and endangered

  • . . . In a world that is out to abuse, cheat, attack, humiliate, and betray

• Caused by parents who . . .

  • Belittle

  • Are indifferent

  • Make false promises

  • Otherwise abuse . . .

• Leads to Basic Anxiety, the root of neurosis

Basic Anxiety

• A child’s feeling of being isolated and helpless in a hostile world.

  • Wants to be helpless/dependent, but can’t

  • Wants to be angry/aggressive (basic hostility), but can’t

Basic Hostility

• A reaction to parental neglect or rejection

  • Child cannot act in a hostile manner, for fear that it would result in further punishment or neglect

    • But child also cannot act in a dependent manner, for fear of further rejection

• —> increased anxiety!

  • Child needs parents and wants to approach them

  • But simultaneously hates them and wants to punish them!

What should the child do? - Three choices

Three Interpersonal Orientations

• Means of interpersonal control and coping:

  • Moving Toward - Getting Type

    • Self-effacing solution

    • Ingratiating; “human doormats”

  • Moving Against - Ruling Type

    • Expansive solution

    • Aggressive and domineering

  • Moving Away - Avoiding Type

    • Resignation solution

    • Avoid people altogether

      • See people as being essentially troublesome and demanding

Moving Toward: Self-effacing

• Morbid dependency: The need for a partner

• Feeling weak and helpless

• Assuming others are superior to themselves

• Sacrificing for others

  • So that others will like them

• Need for love

  • Find self-worth in a relationship

Moving Against: The Expansive Solution

• Narcissistic

  • Love their own high self-image

• Perfectionistic

• Arrogant

  • And vindictive of those who “try” to pull them down

• Need to be right

  • Argumentative

• Need for recognition

Moving Away: The detached personality

• Resigned; Strive for little

• Desire freedom

  • Rebel against any constraints from others

• An “on-looker”: Detached from emotional experiences

• Self-sufficient and independent

  • Remain uninvolved with others

• Need for privacy

Neuroticism to Horney

• Everybody changes their stances to others from time to time (move towards to move away) . . .

• But neurotic people are unable to shift posture

  • “indiscriminate application to all persons”

The Neurotic Needs

• Moving toward

  • For affection and approval

  • A partner who will take over one’s life

• Moving Against

  • For power, control over others, or for omnipotence

  • To exploit others and get the better of them

  • For social recognition and prestige

  • For personal admiration

  • For personal achievement

  • For perfection

• Moving Away

  • To restrict one’s life within narrow borders

  • For self-sufficiency and independence

• The overlap with today’s personality disorders is fairly obvious and Horney spent many years trying to categorize the 10 discrete trends into descriptors of personalities (both normal and abnormal)

• None of these “needs” is, by itself, abnormal!

• Neurotic needs resemble healthy values, but differ in 4 key ways:

  • Disproportionate in intensity

  • Indiscriminate in application to all persons

  • Evidence extreme disregard for reality

  • Provoke intense anxiety when unsatisfied

Application to Problems

• Jealousy: The fear of losing a relationship that is viewed as the best available means of satisfying an insatiable need for affection and incessant demand for unconditional love

  • Jealousy can be “normal” or pathological

    • Pathological adult jealousy is a carry-over from childhood neurosis involving unresolved basic anxiety and attachment to parents

• Tyranny of Shoulds: Belief that one “should” do things . . .

  • Can generate guilt and anxiety

  • Is part of the process of turning away from one’s real self and towards their ideal self

• Related: Neurotic Search for Glory: Striving for Idealized Self

  • Need for perfection

• Fear of Success: Belief that women are likely to undermine their abilities because men are competitive and lead women to believe they are bad if they are successful

In dealing with basic anxiety …

• Neurotic individuals use defense mechanisms, some of which we have already studied (Freud) . . .

• But also some new ones!

Major Adjustments to Basic Anxiety

• Eclipsing the Conflict

  • “Eclipse” the conflict by raising the opposite to predominance

    • Hostile —> Dependent (moving towards)

    • Dependent —> Hostile (moving against)

• Detachment

  • Moving away from others to reduce the conflict (moving away)

• The Idealized Self

  • Move away from “real self”

    • The unique, alive, and personal center of ourselves

  • Moving towards someone “ideal” (e.g., less helpless and more perfect)

    • For these people, their “real self” is not valuable. Hence, they move towards their “ideal” self

• Externalization (like projection)

  • Projects inner conflicts onto the outside world

    • E.g., If one feels rage . . .

      • Get irritated easily by others

      • Believe that others are irritated with us

      • Experience somatic complaints!

Secondary Adjustments to Basic Anxiety - Ideal Self

• Blind Spots

  • Being unaware of overt behavior that is incompatible with idealized self-image

    • E.g., patient who “shot at” co-workers using finger

• Compartmentalization

  • Incompatible behaviors are recognized, but solely within different arenas

    • E.g., patient who saw “ruthless” behavior at work but not in family

Secondary Adjustments to Basic Anxiety - Minimizing Conflict

• Arbitrary Rightness

  • Declaring, arbitrarily and dogmatically, that I am right

    • Inner doubts are denied and external challenges are discredited

• Elusiveness

  • Almost the exact opposite of Arbitrary rightness

  • Do not commit to any opinion!

    • Decreases the chance of experiencing conflict

Interesting Side Notes

• Gender roles are culturally (not biologically) formed

  • Men have “stamped” success as their domain

• Gender roles assign power or dominance for males and submissiveness/nurturance for females

  • Strategies to influence partner is related to “strength”: income, education, and age

    • More powerful member is more likely to act in an autocratic manner (Howard et al. research)

• Penis envy is cultural!

  • Women simply envy power that is typically held by men

• Once thought that women who were professionals suffered personality disturbances

  • However, it is the absence of “masculine” qualities (e.g., assertiveness) that predicts decreased well-being

  • The absence of “feminine” qualities, too, adversely impacts psychological well-being.

Summary of Major Contributions

• Childhood may be a time of anxious helplessness and hidden anger toward powerful but often indifferent adults

• Strategies to cope with these feelings may alienate the person from his/her true self

• The neurotic personality cannot simply “be,” but must

  • Avoid others (moving away)

  • Attack others (moving against)

  • Completely comply with others (moving towards)

Therapy

• Therapist provides security to delve into unhappy or painful topics

• Therapist encourages patient to explore current relationships, including expectations that affect relationships

• Therapist/Client relationship is explored, which allows patient to understand assumptions about themselves and their parents

• Therapist helps patient explore how childhood experiences influence current expectations, perceptions, and emotions

• Are these images adaptive? If not, must form new images

Bem Sex Role Inventory - Scoring (first non-bipolar test!)

• Add item 1 and every third item

  • i.e., 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28

• Divide by 10

• Record score as M

• Add item 2 and every third item

  • i.e., 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29

• Divide by 10

• Record score as F

Bem Sex Role Inventory - Medians

• For women:

  • M = 3.5, F = 5.6

• For men:

  • M = 5.6, F = 3.6

Bem Sex Role Inventory - Descriptives