Title: Karen Horney
1Karen Horney
2Relationship 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
34. 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
47. 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
5Basic Concepts
6Feminine Psychology
- The Male View of Women - womb envy
- Cultural Factors - male privilege
- 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.
74. The Overvaluation of Love - result of coming
off as second best in the competition for a
man. 5. Gender Neutrality
8Basic anxiety Result of bad parenting - the
basic evil 1. domination 2. indifference 3.
erratic behavior 4. lack of respect for child's
needs
95. lack of real guidance 6. disparaging
attitudes 7. too much admiration 8. absence of
admiration
109. lack of reliable warmth 10. having to take
sides in parental disputes 11. too much or too
little responsibility 12. overprotection
1113. isolation from other children 14.
injustice 15. discrimination 16. unkept
promises 17. hostile atmosphere
12 Basic hostility Conflict between basic anxiety
and basic hostility
13- The Structure of Neurosis
- Role of Culture and Context
- Structure vs. Genesis
14The 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.
15- Neurotic solutions
- Moving toward people
- - the compliant solution
- Moving against people
- - the expansive solution
- Moving away from people
- - detachment
16Basic Conflict Overreliance on one of the
neurotic solutions. Other defenses tend to
operate unconsciously and are manifested in a
disguised manner.
17Moving 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.
18Moving 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
19Moving 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
20Moving 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
21Alienation Development of an idealized self and
the tyranny of the should Real self is
considered inadequate, unworthy, unlovable
22Auxiliary neurotic approaches 1. Blind
spots 2. Compartmentalization 3.
Rationalization 4. Cynicism 5. Excessive self
control 6. Externalization of conflict