According to horney, the attempts of neurotics to find love typically result in

Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory

B Overview of Psychoanalytic Social Theory

B Biography of Karen Horney

B Introduction to Psychoanalytic Social Theory

Horney and Freud Compared

The Impact of Culture

The Importance of Childhood Experiences

B Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety B Compulsive Drives

Neurotic Needs

Neurotic Trends

Moving Toward People

Moving Against People

Moving Away From People

B Intrapsychic Conflicts The Idealized Self-Image

The Neurotic Search for Glory

Neurotic Claims

Neurotic Pride

Self-Hatred

Horney

B Feminine Psychology B Psychotherapy B Related Research

The Neurotic Compulsion to Avoid the Negative

Can Neuroticism Ever Be a Good Thing?

B Critique of Horney B Concept of Humanity B Key Terms and Concepts

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C H A P T E R 6

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Please Mark These “True” or “False” as They Apply to You.

1. T F It’s very important to me to please other people.

2. T F When I feel distressed, I seek out an emotionally strong person to tell my troubles to.

3. T F I prefer routine more than change. 4. T F I enjoy being in a powerful leadership position. 5. T F I believe in and follow the advice: “Do unto others before they can

do unto me.” 6. T F I enjoy being the life of the party. 7. T F It’s very important to me to be recognized for my accomplishments. 8. T F I enjoy seeing the achievements of my friends. 9. T F I usually end relationships when they begin to get too close.

10. T F It’s very difficult for me to overlook my own mistakes and personal flaws.

These questions represent 10 important needs proposed by Karen Horney. We discuss these items in the section on neurotic needs. Please know that marking an item in the direction of neurotic needs does not indicate that you are emotionally unstable or driven by neurotic needs.

Overview of Psychoanalytic Social Theory The psychoanalytic social theory of Karen Horney (pronounced Horn-eye) was built on the assumption that social and cultural conditions, especially childhood ex- periences, are largely responsible for shaping personality. People who do not have their needs for love and affection satisfied during childhood develop basic hostility toward their parents and, as a consequence, suffer from basic anxiety. Horney theo- rized that people combat basic anxiety by adopting one of three fundamental styles of relating to others: (1) moving toward people, (2) moving against people, or (3) moving away from people. Normal individuals may use any of these modes of re- lating to other people, but neurotics are compelled to rigidly rely on only one. Their compulsive behavior generates a basic intrapsychic conflict that may take the form of either an idealized self-image or self-hatred. The idealized self-image is expressed as (1) neurotic search for glory, (2) neurotic claims, or (3) neurotic pride. Self- hatred is expressed as either self-contempt or alienation from self.

Although Horney’s writings are concerned mostly with the neurotic personal- ity, many of her ideas can also be applied to normal individuals. This chapter looks at Horney’s basic theory of neurosis, compares her ideas to those of Freud, examines her views on feminine psychology, and briefly discusses her ideas on psychotherapy.

As with other personality theorists, Horney’s views on personality are a re- flection of her life experiences. Bernard Paris (1994) wrote that “Horney’s insights were derived from her efforts to relieve her own pain, as well as that of her patients. If her suffering had been less intense, her insights would have been less profound” (p. xxv). We look now at the life of this often-troubled woman.

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Biography of Karen Horney The biography of Karen Horney has several parallels with the life of Melanie Klein (see Chapter 5). Each was born during the 1880s, the youngest child of a 50-year- old father and his second wife. Each had older siblings who were favored by the par- ents, and each felt unwanted and unloved. Also, each had wanted to become a physi- cian, but only Horney fulfilled that ambition. Finally, both Horney and Klein engaged in an extended self-analysis—Horney’s, beginning with her diaries from age 13 to 26, continuing with her analysis by Karl Abraham, and culminating with her book Self-Analysis (Quinn, 1987).

Karen Danielsen Horney was born in Eilbek, a small town near Hamburg, Germany, on September 15, 1885. She was the only daughter of Berndt (Wackels) Danielsen, a sea captain, and Clothilda van Ronzelen Danielsen, a woman nearly 18 years younger than her husband. The only other child of this marriage was a son, about 4 years older than Karen. However, the old sea captain had been married ear- lier and had four other children, most of whom were adults by the time Horney was born. The Danielsen family was an unhappy one, in part because Karen’s older half- siblings turned their father against his second wife. Karen felt great hostility toward her stern, devoutly religious father and regarded him as a religious hypocrite. How- ever, she idolized her mother, who both supported and protected her against the stern old sea captain. Nevertheless, Karen was not a happy child. She resented the favored treatment given to her older brother, and in addition, she worried about the bitterness and discord between her parents.

When she was 13, Horney decided to become a physician, but at that time no university in Germany admitted women. By the time she was 16, this situation had changed. So Horney—over the objections of her father, who wanted her to stay home and take care of the household—entered the gymnasium, a school that would lead to a university and then to medical school. On her own for the first time, Karen was to remain independent for the rest of her life. According to Paris (1994), however, Hor- ney’s independence was mostly superficial. On a deeper level, she retained a com- pulsive need to merge with a great man. This morbid dependency, which typically in- cluded idealization and fear of inciting angry rejection, haunted Horney during her relationships with a series of men.

In 1906, she entered the University of Freiburg, becoming one of the first women in Germany to study medicine. There she met Oskar Horney, a political sci- ence student. Their relationship began as a friendship, but it eventually became a ro- mantic one. After their marriage in 1909, the couple settled in Berlin, where Oskar, now with a PhD, worked for a coal company and Karen, not yet with an MD, spe- cialized in psychiatry.

By this time, Freudian psychoanalysis was becoming well established, and Karen Horney became familiar with Freud’s writings. Early in 1910, she began an analysis with Karl Abraham, one of Freud’s close associates and a man who later an- alyzed Melanie Klein. After Horney’s analysis was terminated, she attended Abra- ham’s evening seminars, where she became acquainted with other psychoanalysts. By 1917, she had written her first paper on psychoanalysis, “The Technique of Psy- choanalytic Therapy” (Horney, 1917/1968), which reflected the orthodox Freudian view and gave little indication of Horney’s subsequent independent thinking.

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The early years of her marriage were filled with many notable personal expe- riences for Horney. Her father and mother, who were now separated, died within less than a year of each other; she gave birth to three daughters in 5 years; she received her MD degree in 1915 after 5 years of psychoanalysis; and, in her quest for the right man, she had several love affairs (Paris, 1994; Quinn, 1987).

After World War I, the Horneys lived a prosperous, suburban lifestyle with several servants and a chauffeur. Oskar did well financially while Karen enjoyed a thriving psychiatric practice. This idyllic scene, however, soon ended. The inflation and economic disorder of 1923 cost Oskar his job, and the family was forced to move back to an apartment in Berlin. In 1926, Karen and Oskar separated but did not officially divorce until 1938 (Paris, 1994).

The early years following her separation from Oskar were the most productive of Horney’s life. In addition to seeing patients and caring for her three daughters, she became more involved with writing, teaching, traveling, and lecturing. Her papers now showed important differences with Freudian theory. She believed that culture, not anatomy, was responsible for psychic differences between men and women. When Freud reacted negatively to Horney’s position, she became even more outspo- ken in her opposition.

In 1932, Horney left Germany for a position as associate director of the newly established Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. Several factors contributed to her de- cision to immigrate—the anti-Jewish political climate in Germany (although Horney was not Jewish), increasing opposition to her unorthodox views, and an opportunity to extend her influence beyond Berlin. During the 2 years she spent in Chicago, she met Margaret Mead, John Dollard, and many of the same scholars who had influ- enced Harry Stack Sullivan (see Chapter 8). In addition, she renewed acquaintances with Erich Fromm and his wife, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, whom she had known in Berlin. During the next 10 years, Horney and Fromm were close friends, greatly in- fluencing one another and eventually becoming lovers (Hornstein, 2000).

After 2 years in Chicago, Horney moved to New York, where she taught at the New School for Social Research. While in New York, she became a member of the Zodiac group that included Fromm, Fromm-Reichmann, Sullivan, and others. Al- though Horney was a member of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, she seldom agreed with the established members. Moreover, her book New Ways in Psycho- analysis (1939) made her the leader of an opposition group. In this book, Horney called for abandoning the instinct theory and placing more emphasis on ego and so- cial influences. In 1941, she resigned from the institute over issues of dogma and or- thodoxy and helped form a rival organization—the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (AAP). This new group, however, also quickly suffered from in- ternal strife. In 1943, Fromm (whose intimate relationship with Horney had recently ended) and several others resigned from the AAP, leaving that organization without its strongest members. Despite this rift, the association continued, but under a new name—the Karen Horney Psychoanalytic Institute. In 1952, Horney established the Karen Horney Clinic.

In 1950, Horney published her most important work, Neurosis and Human Growth. This book sets forth theories that were no longer merely a reaction to Freud but rather were an expression of her own creative and independent thinking. After a short illness, Horney died of cancer on December 4, 1952. She was 65 years old.

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Introduction to Psychoanalytic Social Theory The early writings of Karen Horney, like those of Adler, Jung, and Klein, have a dis- tinctive Freudian flavor. Like Adler and Jung, she eventually became disenchanted with orthodox psychoanalysis and constructed a revisionist theory that reflected her own personal experiences—clinical and otherwise.

Although Horney wrote nearly exclusively about neuroses and neurotic per- sonalities, her works suggest much that is appropriate to normal, healthy develop- ment. Culture, especially early childhood experiences, plays a leading role in shap- ing human personality, either neurotic or healthy. Horney, then, agreed with Freud that early childhood traumas are important, but she differed from him in her insis- tence that social rather than biological forces are paramount in personality develop- ment.

Horney and Freud Compared Horney criticized Freud’s theories on several accounts. First, she cautioned that strict adherence to orthodox psychoanalysis would lead to stagnation in both theoretical thought and therapeutic practice (Horney, 1937). Second, Horney (1937, 1939) ob- jected to Freud’s ideas on feminine psychology, a subject we return to later. Third, she stressed the view that psychoanalysis should move beyond instinct theory and emphasize the importance of cultural influences in shaping personality. “Man is ruled not by the pleasure principle alone but by two guiding principles: safety and satisfaction” (Horney, 1939, p. 73). Similarly, she claimed that neuroses are not the result of instincts but rather of the person’s “attempt to find paths through a wilder- ness full of unknown dangers” (p. 10). This wilderness is created by society and not by instincts or anatomy.

Despite becoming increasingly critical of Freud, Horney continued to recog- nize his perceptive insights. Her main quarrel with Freud was not so much the accu- racy of his observations but the validity of his interpretations. In general terms, she held that Freud’s explanations result in a pessimistic concept of humanity based on innate instincts and the stagnation of personality. In contrast, her view of humanity is an optimistic one and is centered on cultural forces that are amenable to change (Horney, 1950).

The Impact of Culture Although Horney did not overlook the importance of genetic factors, she repeatedly emphasized cultural influences as the primary bases for both neurotic and normal personality development. Modern culture, she contended, is based on competition among individuals. “Everyone is a real or potential competitor of everyone else” (Horney, 1937, p. 284). Competitiveness and the basic hostility it spawns result in feelings of isolation. These feelings of being alone in a potentially hostile world lead to intensified needs for affection, which, in turn, cause people to overvalue love. As a result, many people see love and affection as the solution for all their problems. Genuine love, of course, can be a healthy, growth-producing experience; but the des- perate need for love (such as that shown by Horney herself ) provides a fertile ground

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for the development of neuroses. Rather than benefiting from the need for love, neu- rotics strive in pathological ways to find it. Their self-defeating attempts result in low self-esteem, increased hostility, basic anxiety, more competitiveness, and a continu- ous excessive need for love and affection.

According to Horney, Western society contributes to this vicious circle in sev- eral respects. First, people of this society are imbued with the cultural teachings of kinship and humility. These teachings, however, run contrary to another prevailing attitude, namely, aggressiveness and the drive to win or be superior. Second, society’s demands for success and achievement are nearly endless, so that even when people achieve their material ambitions, additional goals are continually being placed be- fore them. Third, Western society tells people that they are free, that they can ac- complish anything through hard work and perseverance. In reality, however, the free- dom of most people is greatly restricted by genetics, social position, and the competitiveness of others.

These contradictions—all stemming from cultural influences rather than bio- logical ones—provide intrapsychic conflicts that threaten the psychological health of normal people and provide nearly insurmountable obstacles for neurotics.

The Importance of Childhood Experiences Horney believed that neurotic conflict can stem from almost any developmental stage, but childhood is the age from which the vast majority of problems arise. A va- riety of traumatic events, such as sexual abuse, beatings, open rejection, or pervasive neglect, may leave their impressions on a child’s future development; but Horney (1937) insisted that these debilitating experiences can almost invariably be traced to lack of genuine warmth and affection. Horney’s own lack of love from her father and her close relationship with her mother must have had a powerful effect on her per- sonal development as well as on her theoretical ideas.

Horney (1939) hypothesized that a difficult childhood is primarily responsible for neurotic needs. These needs become powerful because they are the child’s only means of gaining feelings of safety. Nevertheless, no single early experience is re- sponsible for later personality. Horney cautioned that “the sum total of childhood ex- periences brings about a certain character structure, or rather, starts its development” (p. 152). In other words, the totality of early relationships molds personality devel- opment. “Later attitudes to others, then, are not repetitions of infantile ones but em- anate from the character structure, the basis of which is laid in childhood” (p. 87).

Although later experiences can have an important effect, especially in normal individuals, childhood experiences are primarily responsible for personality devel- opment. People who rigidly repeat patterns of behavior do so because they interpret new experiences in a manner consistent with those established patterns.

Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety Horney (1950) believed that each person begins life with the potential for healthy de- velopment, but like other living organisms, people need favorable conditions for growth. These conditions must include a warm and loving environment yet one that is not overly permissive. Children need to experience both genuine love and healthy

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discipline. Such conditions provide them with feelings of safety and satisfaction and permit them to grow in accordance with their real self.

Unfortunately, a multitude of adverse influences may interfere with these fa- vorable conditions. Primary among these is the parents’ inability or unwillingness to love their child. Because of their own neurotic needs, parents often dominate, ne- glect, overprotect, reject, or overindulge. If parents do not satisfy the child’s needs for safety and satisfaction, the child develops feelings of basic hostility toward the parents. However, children seldom overtly express this hostility as rage; instead, they repress their hostility toward their parents and have no awareness of it. Repressed hostility then leads to profound feelings of insecurity and a vague sense of appre- hension. This condition is called basic anxiety, which Horney (1950) defined as “a feeling of being isolated and helpless in a world conceived as potentially hostile” (p. 18). Earlier, she gave a more graphic description, calling basic anxiety “a feeling of being small, insignificant, helpless, deserted, endangered, in a world that is out to abuse, cheat, attack, humiliate, betray, envy” (Horney, 1937, p. 92).