Karen Horney

1885 - 1952

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

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

Neurotic Needs and Personality Disorders

• Social recognition or prestige

• Personal admiration

• Personal achievement

• Self-sufficiency and independence

• Perfection and unassailability

• Narcissistic, Histrionic

• Narcissistic, Histrionic

• Antisocial, Narcissistic

• Avoidant, Paranoid, Schizoid, Schizotypal

• Narcissistic, Borderline, Avoidant

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

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].

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

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:

Theory

• Relentless demands on self– “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

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”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Auxiliary Conflict Solutions

• Creation of Blind Spots– Type of denial

– Refusal to see the discrepancy between their behaviors and the idealized self

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.

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)

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.