Chapter 6 Notes Flashcards
Horney and Freud Compared
1) strict adherence to psychoanalysis leads to stagnation in both theoretical thought and therapy
2) objected to his feminine view
3) move beyond instinct theory and focus on cultural influences
Questioned the validity of his interpretations
Too pessimistic based on instinct
The Impact of Culture
modern culture is too competitive and that competition leads to hostility and feelings of isolation. These conditions lead to exaggerated needs for affection and cause people to overvalue love.
The Importance of Childhood Experiences
Neurotic conflict stems largely from childhood traumas, most of which are traced to a lack of genuine love
Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
children need feelings of safety and security,
bad parenting = basic hostility
repress basic hostility, they will develop feelings of insecurity and a pervasive sense of apprehension called basic anxiety.
People can protect themselves from basic anxiety by
(1) affection, (2) submissiveness, (3) power or prestige, and (4) withdrawal
Normal people have the flexibility to use any or all of these approaches, but neurotics are compelled to rely rigidly on only one
contradictions which stem from cultural influences provide
intrapsychic conflicts
basic anxiety defined as
” a feeling of being isolated and helpless in a world conceived as potentially hostile”
Or feelings of being “small, insignificant, helpless, deserted, endangered, in a world that is out to abuse cheat attack humiliate betray and envy
Compulsive Drives
compulsive need to reduce basic anxiety leads to a variety of self-defeating behaviors;
10 neurotic needs
(1) needs for affection and approval,
(2) needs for a partner
(3) needs to restrict one’s life within narrow borders,
(4) needs for power
(5) needs to exploit others
(6) needs for social recognition or prestige
(7) needs for personal admiration
(8) needs for ambition and personal achievement
(9) needs for self-sufficiency and independence,
(10) needs for perfection and unassailability.
3 Neurotic Trends
(1) moving toward people
(2) moving against people
(3) moving away from people
Neurotic Trends are meant to solve
basic conflict
Explain Horney’s Intrapsychic Conflicts
People who do not receive love and affection during childhood are blocked in their attempt to acquire a stable sense of identity. Feeling alienated from self, they create an idealized self-image = 3 neurotic needs
idealized self and the self hatred result
3 aspects of idealized image
1) the neurotic search for glory
a) need for perfection: drive to mold the whole personality into the idealized self based upon the tyranny of the should
b) neurotic ambition: compulsive drive toward superiority (in addition to typical forms of success, it could also include bing the most saintly or charitable)
c) drive towards a vindictive triumph:
2) neurotic claims
3) Neurotic Pride
6 modes of self hatred
(1) relentless demands on self
(2) merciless self-accusation
(3) self-contempt
(4) self-frustration
(5) self-torment or self-torture
(6) self-destructive actions and impulses.
Feminine Psychology
not due to anatomy but to culture and social expectations.
Oedipus complex differed markedly from Freud’s in that
any sexual attraction or hostility the child feels for the parent would be the result of learning and not biology.
Oedipal thing is an expression of the neurotic need for love The child’s main goal is security not sexual intercourse
Penis envy is bullshit
Agreed with Adler around masculine protest: a pathological belief that men are better than women simply because women wanted to have access to all that a man has
The goal of Horney’s psychotherapy
help patients grow toward self-realization, give up their idealized self-image, relinquish their neurotic search for glory, and change self-hatred to self-acceptance.
techniques they use Horney’s psychotherapy
Dream interpretation
Free association
Both of the above eventually reveals patients idealized self image and unsuccessful attempts at accomplishing the idealized self image
Related Research
Horney-Coolidge Tridimensional Inventory
Compliance (towards)
Aggression (against)
Detachment (away)
The conclusion was that many neurotic people, while they cannot change their personalities and stop being neurotic, often develop great skill at avoiding negative outcomes, and that their successful avoidance of these outcomes improves their mood, making them feel better on a daily basis
Critique of Horney
Ability to generate research and submit a criterion for falsifiability:
Falls short
Speculations make it hard to be falsifiable or verifiable
Ability to organize knowledge
High with regard to neurotics but low with regard to people in general
Guide to action
Low rating because although it gives a framework it doesn’t really offer ways of guiding to well being
Internal consistency
Over the course of all her books its inconsistent but within books its consistent
Parsimony
High - relatively simple and straight forward
Concept of Humanity
Free choice vs determinism
Slightly higher on free choice as neurotics can make their way to having more choice through therapy
Optimism vs Pessimism
More optimistic
People possess internal creative power guiding them to self-realization
Causality vs Teleology
Middle position
Self realization is the natural tendency but childhood experiences can block that movement forward
Conscious vs Un
Middle stance
Neurotics are less conscious
social vs biological
Social as exhibited by her take on the Oedipal or differences between the sexes
Similarities or differences between people
High on similarities more than uniqueness
