1. Karen Horney

2. Neurotic Needs Affection and approval Partner to take over one’s life
Restrict one’s life within narrow boundaries
Power, control over others, and façade of omnipotence
Exploit others and get the better of them
Social recognition or prestige
Personal admiration
Personal achievement
Self-sufficiency and independence
Perfection and unassailability

3. Neurotic Needs and Personality Disorders
Affection and approval
Partner to take over one’s life
Restrict one’s life within narrow boundaries
Power, control over others, and façade of omnipotence
Exploit others and get the better of them
Dependent, Histrionic, Borderline, Narcissistic
Dependent, Borderline
Dependent, Avoidant, Paranoid
Antisocial, Narcissistic, Borderline, Paranoid, Histrionic, Obsessive Compulsive
Antisocial, Narcissistic, Borderline

4. Neurotic Needs and Personality Disorders
Social recognition or prestige
Personal admiration
Personal achievement
Self-sufficiency and independence
Perfection and unassailability
Narcissistic, Histrionic
Antisocial, Narcissistic
Avoidant, Paranoid, Schizoid, Schizotypal
Narcissistic, Borderline, Avoidant

5. Karen Horney Born in 1885 in Hamburg, Germany
Father was a ship’s captain
Religious
Authoritarian
Mother was somewhat upper class comparatively

6. Karen Horney
4 siblings from previous marriage and an older biological brother (darling of family)
Felt deprived of her father’s affections and became her mother’s “little lamb”
Still felt basically unwanted and unloved
Around age 12 developed crush on brother
Pushed her away
First bought of depression

7. Karen Horney Entered medical school in 1906 Married in 1909
3 daughters
Mother died in 1910
Began psychoanalysis
First affair in 1911
Need for men seemed compulsive but not all consuming

8. Karen Horney 1923: Attempted to kill self by swimming out to sea
Marriage failing
Brother died
Extreme depression

9. Karen Horney Moved into apt. with daughters in 1926
Moved to New York in 1930/32
Developed theories
Practice psychotherapy
Wrote books
Died in 1952

10. Theory
Have an innate drive for positive personal growth (self realization)
Pathological behavior results when this is blocked
Disturbed interpersonal relationships are at the core of all healthy and unhealthy (neurotic) personality functioning

11. Theory
Neurotics show patterns of extreme and inflexible approaches to handling interpersonal relationships
“…the center of psychic disturbances are unconscious strivings developed in order to cope with life despite fears, helplessness, and isolation. I have called them “neurotic trends” [neurotic needs].

12. Theory Safety and satisfaction are the two primary needs
Under ideal conditions, a child will feel loved, protected, and safe
Under less than ideal conditions, a child feels vulnerable, helpless and abandoned producing basic anxiety
“the feeling a child has of being isolated and helpless in a potentially hostile world”
Is the result of parental indifference
Called this “the basic evil”
As much perception as intention

13. Theory
Parental indifference and the conflict it produces results in defensive ways of perceiving oneself.
Despised real self (fallible true self)
Repressed hostility turns toward self and further proves ones unworthiness and sense of being unlovable
Self contemot
Six major ways of manifestation:

14. Theory Relentless demands on self Merciless self-accusation
“Tyranny of the should”
Merciless self-accusation
Constantly berate self
Self-contempt
Ridicule that prevents striving for improvement or achievement
Self-frustration
Don’t believe we deserve to enjoy things
Self-torment
Inflict harm and suffering on self
Self-destructive actions and impulses
Overeating, addictions, reckless behavior

15. Theory
Then create the image of the idealized or ideal self to defensively restructure the despised real self
The drive toward actualizing the ideal self is called the neurotic search for glory.
Manifests as:
Need for perfection
Attempt to mold the whole personality into the idealized self
“Tyranny of the should”

16. Theory Manifests itself (cont) Neurotic ambition
Compulsive drive toward superiority
Although desire to excel at everything, often channeled into area most likely to succeed
Drive toward a vindictive triumph
“its chief aim is to put others to shame or defeat them through one’s very success; or to attain the power…to inflict suffering on them – mostly of a humiliating kind”
Most destructive of the three

17. Theory Later added : Real self True core of persons being
Contains all potential of growth and health (possible self)
Damaged by parental indifference
Alienation from this and adoption of the idealized self is called the core neurotic conflict

18. Theory
Basic anxiety around parental indifference makes the child angry and resentful toward parents
Called this basic hostility
Creates conflict and anxiety for child
Child needs parents and wants to approach them
On the other hand hates them and wants to punish them
This is the basis of neurosis

19. Theory
A child deals with this by adopting one of three relationship strategies:
Accentuate dependency and move toward the parents
Accentuate hostility and move against the parents
Give up on the relationship and move away from the parents
Calls these the basic conflict

20. Theory Moving Toward People: “If you love me, you will not hurt me”
Compliant Personality
Intense needs for affection and approval
Need for a partner
Need to restrict ones life within narrow boundaries
Goal is to achieve harmony with others and avoid friction

21. Theory Compliant Personality
May mask underlying feelings of need to compete, excel, and dominate, or feelings of rage, anger and hostility
Called this the self-effacing solution
The ideal self is the despised self
Qualities of suffering, helplessness and martyrdom

22. Theory Moving against people: “ If I have power, no one can hurt me”
Aggressive Personality
Need for control and power as protection against feelings of helplessness
Need to excel by exploiting others
Success and prestige are measures of their self worth
Driven by insecurity, anxiety, and hostility
Called this the expansive solution
Ultimate attempt to actualize the ideal self

23. Theory Moving away from people: “If I withdraw, nothing can hurt me”
Detached personality
Detached from human affairs
Resigned to an emotionally flat life
Protection from being hurt by others
Intense needs of self sufficiency and perfection

24. Theory Detached personality
Narrow limits of life so that will not have to be dependent on others
Remove selves from “inner battlefield” of their own conflicts
Called this the solution of resignation

25. Theory
Healthy people move between these and use what is appropriate when needed
Neurotics mainly emphasize one of the Neurotic solutions
Two less emphasized remain at work in the unconscious

26. Auxiliary Conflict Solutions
Creation of Blind Spots
Type of denial
Refusal to see the discrepancy between their behaviors and the idealized self

27. Auxiliary Conflict Solutions
Compartmentalization
Life compartmentalized with different rules for each
What happens in one has not effect or link to another
Situational ethics
Rationalization
Using logical, plausible, but inaccurate excuses to justify one’s perceived weaknesses, failures, or inconsistencies.

28. Auxiliary Conflict Solutions
Excessive self control
Avoidance of emotions (good or bad)
Arbitrary rightness
Because of difficulty in taking action, will appear to arbitrarily make decisions (showing one is arbitrarily right or in charge)
(dogmatism)

29. Auxiliary Conflict Solutions
Elusiveness
Postpones making any decisions, voice any opinions, etc.
If I am not committed to anything, I can’t be wrong; If I am not wrong I can’t be criticized
Cynicism
Doesn’t believe in anything
By not believing in anything, I am immune to the disappointment of being committed to something shown to be false.