Chapter 5 - Horney Flashcards
Safety need
A higher-level need for security and freedom from fear
- as long as child feels secure, they will get through trauma
- state of helplessness in infancy can lead to neurotic behaviour
Basis anxiety
A pervasive feeling of loneliness and helplessness; the foundation of neurosis
self protective mechanisms include:
1) securing affection - “if you love me, you won’t hurt me” - bribing or threatening others to love them
2) being submissive - “if I give into these people’s desires, then I won’t be hurt” - complying to others desires
3) attaining power - “if I have power, then I won’t be hurt”
4) withdrawing - “if I am not dependant on anyone for anything, then I won’t be hurt”
Neurotic needs
Ten irrational defences against anxiety that become permanent part of personality and that effect behaviour (affection and approval, a dominant partner, power, exploitation, prestige, admiration, achievement, self-sufficiency, perfection, narrow limits of life)
Neurotic trends
Three categories of behaviours and attitudes toward oneself and others that express a person’s needs; Horney’s revision of the concept of neurotic needs
1) movement toward other people (compliant personality)
- affectionate approval
- a dominant partner
2) movement against other people (aggressive personality)
- power
- exploitation
- prestige
- admiration
- achievement
3) movement away from other people (detached personality)
- self-sufficiency
- perfection
- narrow limits to life
Compliant personality
Behaviours and attitudes associated with the neurotic trend of moving toward people, such as a need for affection and approval
Aggressive personality
Behaviours and attitudes associated with the neurotic trends of moving against people, such as a domineering and controlling manner - leading them to be successful in career, etc.
Detached personality
Behaviours and attitudes associated with the neurotic trend of moving away from people, such as an intense need for privacy
- place great stress on reason, logic, and intelligence
- must not love, hate, or cooperate with others or become involved in any way - self-sufficient
Conflict
To Horney, the basic incompatibility of the neurotic trends (core of neurosis)
- neurotic person has one dominant trend - battles to keep the non-dominant trends from being expressed
Idealized self-image
- Unifies personality
- satisfaction with oneself
For normal people, the self-image is an idealized picture of oneself built on a flexible, realistic assessment of one’s ability.
For neurotics, the self-image is based on inflexible, unrealistic self-appraisal
- unsuccessful attempt to stabilize self-image
- neurotic search for glory (exaggerated self-image)
- neurotic claims (sense of entitlement)
Neurotic pride
Tyranny of the shoulds
An attempt to realize an unattainable idealized self-image by denying the true self and behaving in terms of what we think we should be doing
Aka. Perfectionism
Externalization
A way to defend against the conflict caused by the discrepancy between an idealized and a real self-image by projecting the conflict onto the outside world (something outside of me is the cause of the conflict I experience)
Feminine psychology
To Horney, a revision of psychoanalysis to encompass the psychological conflicts inherent in the traditional ideal of womanhood and women’s roles
Womb envy
The envy a male feels toward a female because she can bear children and he cannot.
- men belittle women because they are unable to carry a child
Womb envy was Horney’s response to Freud’s concept of penis envy in females.
Horney and Human Nature
- free will
- highlighted the influence of culture
- focused on the last and the present
- emphasized on uniqueness
- believes in growth and flexibility
- optimistic
Neurotic competitiveness
An indiscriminate need to win at all costs
Those who scored high in this are high in narcissism, neuroticism, authoritarianism, dogmatism, and mistrust, and low in self-esteem and psychological health
