Karen Horney

1
Personality Psychology

• Karen Horney
• Erich Fromm

2
History

• Karen Horney
• Born September 16, 1885 in Hamburg Germany
• Died December, 4, 1952 in NYC
• Father Ships captain. Overbearing and
  authoritarian.
• Mother Second, younger wife of Horneys father.
  Had two children, one son and one daughter.
• Brother Horney was very close to her brother.

3
History

• Career and Family In 1906, she entered medical
  school at University of Berlin.
• While there, she met and married a law student
  named Oscar Horney.
• He eventually became a broken man. Karen and her
  daughters moved out of Oskar's house in 1926 and,
  four years later, moved to the U.S., eventually
  settling in Brooklyn.
• Befriended Erich Fromm and Harry Stack Sullivan.
• Had many bouts with depression and feelings of
  rejection.

4
Concepts

• Basic Evil Parental Indifference
• Basic Hostility
• Sense of anger and betrayal
• First reaction to parental indifference
• Basic Anxiety
• Fear of being alone, helpless
• Similar to mistrust

5
Neurosis

• Neurosis is a way we attempt to deal with life.
  It is a continuum of normal behavior.
• Coping Strategies
• Moving-toward strategy (Compliance)
• Moving-against strategy (Aggression)
• Moving-away-from strategy (Withdrawal)

6
Neurotic Needs

• 1. The Neurotic Need for Affection and Approval
• 2. The Neurotic Need for a Partner Who Will Take
  Over Ones Life
• 3. The Neurotic Need to Restrict Ones Life
  Within Narrow Borders
• 4. The Neurotic Need for Power
• 5. The Neurotic Need to Exploit Others
• 6. The Neurotic Need for Social Recognition and
  Prestige
• 7. The Neurotic Need for Personal Admiration
• 8. The Neurotic Need for Personal Achievement
• 9. The Neurotic Need for Self-Sufficiency and
  Independence
• 10. The Neurotic Need for Perfection and
  Unassailability

7
Self

• Real Self
• Self-Realization
• Ideal Self vs. Despised Self
• Neurotic is alienated from real self
• Goes back and forth between hating self and
  thinking they are perfect

8
History

• Erich Fromm
• Born 1900 in Frankfurt, Germany.
• Died 1980 in Switzerland
• Family Came from a very religious family, in his
  case orthodox Jews. Not a happy family moody
  father, depressed mother.

9
History

• Career He received his PhD in 1922. He started
  with advanced training in Political Sociology.
• He moved to the U.S. in 1934 and settled in New
  York City, where he met many other psychologists
  of the time, including Adler, Sullivan, and
  Horney.
• He taught at many universities around the world
  and wrote many books, while continuing his
  private clinical practice.

10
Freedom

• Humans strive for freedom and autonomy but
  striving for freedom may result in feelings of
  isolation, alienation, and bewilderment.
• People need to be free, but also to feel
  connected to others. Freedom is a difficult
  thing to have, and when we can we tend to flee
  from it.
• He observed that embracing our freedom of will
  was healthy, whereas escaping freedom through the
  use of escape mechanisms was the root of
  psychological conflicts

11
Escape from Freedom

• Authoritarianism
• Destructiveness
• Conformity

12
Needs

• Relatedness 
• Relationships with others, care, respect,
  knowledge.
• Transcendence / Creativity
• Developing a loving and interesting life.
• Rootedness 
• Feeling of belonging.
• Sense of Identity 
• Seeing ourselves as a unique person and part of a
  social group.
• Frame of orientation 
• Understanding the world and our place in it.