(Lecture Notes) Karen Horney's Psychoanalytic Social Theory

Flashcards covering Karen Horney's Psychoanalytic Social Theory, including concepts like basic evil, basic anxiety, neurotic trends, coping strategies, and the real vs. idealized self.

Basic Evil

Negative environmental factors that provoke insecurity in a child, such as domination, isolation, hostility, or lack of warmth.

Basic Anxiety

An insidiously increasing, all-pervading feeling of being lonely and helpless in a hostile world, as described by Horney.

Neurotic Needs or Trends

Exaggerated, inappropriate, irrational, and illogical desires or needs that arise from basic anxiety.

Moving Toward (Compliance)

A neurotic coping strategy characterized by an appeal to be loved, often seen as a self-effacing solution.

Moving Against (Hostility)

A neurotic coping strategy characterized by an attempt at mastery, often seen as a self-expansive solution.

Moving Away (Detachment)

A neurotic coping strategy characterized by a desire to be free of others, often seen as a resignation solution.

Normal Individuals (Horney)

Resolve conflicts by integrating and balancing the three orientations (moving toward, against, away) and expressing each mode appropriately.

Neurotic Individuals (Horney)

Express one mode of relating to others (toward, against, or away) at the expense of other aspects of their personality.

Real Self

What we truly are, representing things that are true about us and the true source of strength.

Idealized Self

What we think we should be; in neurotics, it is discrepant from the real self and often unrealistic.

Alienation (or the Devil's Pact)

An extreme neurosis where an individual completely abandons the real self for the sake of an idealized, glorified self.

Tyranny of the Should

Horney's concept describing how neurotics' lives are governed by an eternal battle for perfection in the pursuit of their ideal self.

Cause of Neurosis (Horney)

Horney believed that environment and social upbringing, rather than intrinsic factors, largely lead to neurosis.