Karen Horney Flashcards
Childhood need for safety
Social forces in childhood influence personality.
Safety need
High level need for security and freedom from fear
How parents undermine child security
•obvious preference for a sibling
•unfair punishment and erratic behavior
•breaking promises
•ridicule and humiliation
•isolation of child from peers
Basic Anxiety
Pervasive feeling of loneliness and helplessness; foundation of neurosis
Self protective mechanisms against anxiety
Securing affection, attaining power, being submissive, withdrawing
Neurotic needs
Irrational defenses that become a permanent part of personality
Neurotic trends
Categories of behaviors and attitudes toward oneself and others that express a person’s needs; revision of neurotic needs
Conflict
Incompatibility of the neurotic trends; a neurotic person has one dominant trend
Idealized self image
Idealized picture of oneself; unifies personality
Self image of normal person
Built on a flexible, realistic assessment of one’s abilities
Neurotic’s self image
Based on an inflexible and unrealistic self appraisal; unsatisfactory substitute for self worth
Feminine Psychology
Revision of psychoanalysis; encompasses psychological conflicts inherent in womanhood and women’s roles
Trends
movement toward people; movement away from people; movement against people
Tyranny of shoulds
An attempt to realize an unattainable idealized self image; involves denial of the true self and behaving in terms of what one thinks they should be doing
Externalization
Way of defending against conflict caused by discrepancy between an idealized and real self-image; projects conflict onto the outside world
