Karen Horney

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Karen Horney

• Personality Theory

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Relationship to Freud 1. Published series of
papers criticizing Freud and proposing a feminine
psychology around 1930 2. Aspired to eliminate
the fallacies in Freud's thinking, which she
thought stemmed from a mechanistic, biological
orientation 3. Considered Freud to erroneously
overemphasize sexual motivation and conflict
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4. The primary motivating factors are concerns
over security and intrapsychic and interpersonal
alienation 5. Neurotic persons create a
protective structure to deal with their
concerns 6. Penis envy is not the determining
factor in women's psychology
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7. Feminine psychology is based on lack of
confidence and overemphasis of the love
relationship 8. Aggression is a means of
protecting oneself 9. Narcissism is
overvaluation based on insecurity
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Basic Concepts
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Feminine Psychology

1. The Male View of Women - womb envy
2. Cultural Factors - male privilege
3. The Masculinity Complex - the entire complex of
   feelings and fantasies that have for their
   content the womans feeling of being
   discriminated against, her envy of the male, her
   wish to be a man and to discard the female role.

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4. The Overvaluation of Love - result of coming
off as second best in the competition for a
man. 5. Gender Neutrality
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Basic anxiety Result of bad parenting - the
basic evil 1. domination 2. indifference 3.
erratic behavior 4. lack of respect for child's
needs
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5. lack of real guidance 6. disparaging
attitudes 7. too much admiration 8. absence of
admiration
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9. lack of reliable warmth 10. having to take
sides in parental disputes 11. too much or too
little responsibility 12. overprotection
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13. isolation from other children 14.
injustice 15. discrimination 16. unkept
promises 17. hostile atmosphere
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Basic hostility Conflict between basic anxiety
and basic hostility
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• The Structure of Neurosis
• Role of Culture and Context
• Structure vs. Genesis

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The Real Self
The real self is what we refer to when we say
that we want to find ourselves . . . It is the
possible self - in contrast to the idealized
self, which is impossible of attainment.
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• Neurotic solutions
• Moving toward people
• - the compliant solution
• Moving against people
• - the expansive solution
• Moving away from people
• - detachment

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Basic Conflict Overreliance on one of the
neurotic solutions. Other defenses tend to
operate unconsciously and are manifested in a
disguised manner.
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Moving toward people Their values lie in the
direction of goodness, sympathy, love,
generosity, unselfishness, humility while
egotism, ambition, callousness, unscrupulousness,
wielding of power are abhorred.
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Moving toward people A. morbid dependency B.
feels weak and helpless C. assumes that others
are superior D. martyr E. needy for love to
affirm self worth
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Moving against people A. in love with own
idealized self image - narcissistic B.
perfectionistic C. arrogant-vindictive D.
needs to be right E. needs to be admired
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Moving away from people A. resigned doesn't
try B. rebellious against constraints C.
lives as an onlooker D. self-sufficient and
independent E. needs privacy keeps others out
of the magic circle of the self
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Alienation Development of an idealized self and
the tyranny of the should Real self is
considered inadequate, unworthy, unlovable
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Auxiliary neurotic approaches 1. Blind
spots 2. Compartmentalization 3.
Rationalization 4. Cynicism 5. Excessive self
control 6. Externalization of conflict