1
KAREN
HORNEY
Life Highlights
• Childhood
o Hostile to father, idolized mother (opposite to Freud’s theory)
o Unhappy child (not the favorite and witnessed the discord between her parents)
• Left home against her father’s will to become a physician
• Relationship with men
o Oskar Horney
▪ Affairs
o Erich Fromm
• She analyzed her diaries
• Moved to the US where she saw the difference (attributed to culture) between
Germanand American clients
• Early feminist (had issues with Freud’s psychoanalysis)
Horney’s Criticisms of Psychoanalysis
1. Rigid adherence to psychoanalysis would lead to stagnation in theoretical
thought andpractice
2. Objection to Freud’s ideas on feminine psychology
3. Stressed psychoanalysis to move beyond the instinct theory and emphasize
culturalinfluences in shaping personality
Psychoanalytic Social Theory
o Posits that social and cultural conditions, especially childhood
experiences, arelargely responsible for shaping personality
o The totality of early relationships molds personality development
o 2 guiding principles: (the only things/goals people want)
o Safety/security
o Satisfaction
Impact of childhood experiences
o Childhood is believed to be:
o The age from which most traumatic events arise
o Dominated by the safety need
o The phase when people can withstand trauma as long as they feel
wanted,loved, and secured
o A difficult childhood (patterns) leads to neurotic needs which becomes the
child’smeans to gain feelings of safety
o “People who rigidly repeat patterns of behavior do so because they interpret new
experiences in a manner consistent with those established patterns”
Ways of undermining a child’s security:
, 2
o Experience of these leads the child to be in a state of helplessness that
inducesneurotic behavior
1. Obvious preference for one sibling over the other
2. Unfair punishment
3. Erratic behavior
4. Promises not kept
5. Ridicule
6. Humiliation
7. Isolation of the child from peers
o In modern culture, the competition is high.
o With competition, it fosters competitiveness, leading to basic hostility
withfrustration.
o With basic hostility, we have the tendency to isolate & need affection.
(affectionfrom the parents)
o If our response (or experience) is healthy, as well as the reaction for that
need foraffection, it will lead to our growth.
o If pathological (overvaluing love), in a way that we seek for it or turning
away fromit, it can lead to neuroses.
o Neurosis is big in Horney’s theory
Repressing hostility towards parents
o When the need for affection isn’t satisfied, children become helpless
o The more helpless children are, the less they dare to oppose or rebel
against theirparents
o The more fearful they become, the more they will repress hostility
o Dishonest expressions of love
o Repress hostility to maintain even that love
o More guilt feelings, more repressed hostility
o Experience of these lead the child to be in a state of helplessness that
inducesneurotic behavior
Basic Anxiety
o Present to all of us
o Developed from repressed hostility as it leads to profound feelings of
insecurityand a vague sense of apprehension
o Foundation of neurosis for Horney
o It is the pervasive feelings of loneliness & helplessness
o For Horney, it is part of our life.
o “A feeling of being isolated & helpless in a world conceived as potentially
hostile” “a feeling of being small, insignificant, helpless, deserted,
endangered, in a world that is out to abuse, cheat, attack, humiliate, betray,
envy”
o Basic anxiety is not neurosis.
o Part of our process as people
KAREN
HORNEY
Life Highlights
• Childhood
o Hostile to father, idolized mother (opposite to Freud’s theory)
o Unhappy child (not the favorite and witnessed the discord between her parents)
• Left home against her father’s will to become a physician
• Relationship with men
o Oskar Horney
▪ Affairs
o Erich Fromm
• She analyzed her diaries
• Moved to the US where she saw the difference (attributed to culture) between
Germanand American clients
• Early feminist (had issues with Freud’s psychoanalysis)
Horney’s Criticisms of Psychoanalysis
1. Rigid adherence to psychoanalysis would lead to stagnation in theoretical
thought andpractice
2. Objection to Freud’s ideas on feminine psychology
3. Stressed psychoanalysis to move beyond the instinct theory and emphasize
culturalinfluences in shaping personality
Psychoanalytic Social Theory
o Posits that social and cultural conditions, especially childhood
experiences, arelargely responsible for shaping personality
o The totality of early relationships molds personality development
o 2 guiding principles: (the only things/goals people want)
o Safety/security
o Satisfaction
Impact of childhood experiences
o Childhood is believed to be:
o The age from which most traumatic events arise
o Dominated by the safety need
o The phase when people can withstand trauma as long as they feel
wanted,loved, and secured
o A difficult childhood (patterns) leads to neurotic needs which becomes the
child’smeans to gain feelings of safety
o “People who rigidly repeat patterns of behavior do so because they interpret new
experiences in a manner consistent with those established patterns”
Ways of undermining a child’s security:
, 2
o Experience of these leads the child to be in a state of helplessness that
inducesneurotic behavior
1. Obvious preference for one sibling over the other
2. Unfair punishment
3. Erratic behavior
4. Promises not kept
5. Ridicule
6. Humiliation
7. Isolation of the child from peers
o In modern culture, the competition is high.
o With competition, it fosters competitiveness, leading to basic hostility
withfrustration.
o With basic hostility, we have the tendency to isolate & need affection.
(affectionfrom the parents)
o If our response (or experience) is healthy, as well as the reaction for that
need foraffection, it will lead to our growth.
o If pathological (overvaluing love), in a way that we seek for it or turning
away fromit, it can lead to neuroses.
o Neurosis is big in Horney’s theory
Repressing hostility towards parents
o When the need for affection isn’t satisfied, children become helpless
o The more helpless children are, the less they dare to oppose or rebel
against theirparents
o The more fearful they become, the more they will repress hostility
o Dishonest expressions of love
o Repress hostility to maintain even that love
o More guilt feelings, more repressed hostility
o Experience of these lead the child to be in a state of helplessness that
inducesneurotic behavior
Basic Anxiety
o Present to all of us
o Developed from repressed hostility as it leads to profound feelings of
insecurityand a vague sense of apprehension
o Foundation of neurosis for Horney
o It is the pervasive feelings of loneliness & helplessness
o For Horney, it is part of our life.
o “A feeling of being isolated & helpless in a world conceived as potentially
hostile” “a feeling of being small, insignificant, helpless, deserted,
endangered, in a world that is out to abuse, cheat, attack, humiliate, betray,
envy”
o Basic anxiety is not neurosis.
o Part of our process as people
