Karen Danielsen Horney - Nerotic Trends

Neurotic Trends

[Neurotic Trends]

• 10 Neurotic Needs could be grouped into 3 general categories, each relating to a person's basic attitude toward self and others

NORMAL PEOPLE	NEUROTICS
Completely conscious of their strategy toward other people	Are unaware of their basic attitude
Free to choose their actions	Forced to act
Experience mild conflict	Experience severe and insoluble conflict
Variety of strategies	Limited to a single trend

• Feelings of isolation and helplessness (basic anxiety) drive some children to act compulsively : Limiting their repertoire to a single neurotic trend
• Children attempt to solve this basic conflict (contradictory attitude toward others) by making on of the 3 neurotic consistently dominant

             1) Move toward people : By behaving in a compliant manner as a protection against feelings

                                                      of helplessness

             2) Move against people : With acts of aggression in order to circumvent the hostility of others

             3) Move away from people : By adopting a detached manner, thus alleviating feelings

                                                            of isolation

[Moving toward people] # 1-2

• Neurotic need to protect oneself against feelings of helplessness
• Compliant people employ either or both of the first 2 neurotic needs :

             1) Desperately strive for affection and approval of others

             2) Seeks a powerful partner who will take responsibility for their lives

[Moving against people] # 3-7

• Aggressive people take for granted that everyone is hostile
• Move against others by appearing tough or ruthless
• Motivated by a string need to exploit others and to use them for their own benefit
• Seldom admit their mistakes and are compulsively driven to appear perfect, powerful and superiority

             1) To be powerful

             2) To exploit others

             3) Receiving recognition and prestige

             4) To be admired

             5) To achieve

• Play to win rather than the enjoyment of the contest
• Appear to be hardworking and resourceful on the job but take little pleasure in the work itself

[Moving Away From people] # 8-10

• Behave in a detached manner
• Expression of needs for privacy, independence, and self-sufficiency
• Compulsively putting emotional distance between themselves and other people
• Associating with others is an intolerable strain
• Build a world of their own and refuses to allow anyone to get close to them
• Greatest fear is to need other people

             1) Self- sufficiency and independence

             2) Perfection and prestige

[Intra-Psychic Conflicts]

     1. The Idealized self-image : Attempt to solve conflicts by painting a godlike picture of oneself         2. Self-Hatred : Interrelated yet equally irrational and powerful tendency to despise one's real self

• Gap creates a growing alienation between the real self and the idealized self and leads neurotics to hate and despise their actual self because it falls so short in matching the glorified self-image

[The Idealized Self- image]

• The need to acquire a stable sense of identity
• Creating an idealized self-image, an extravagantly positive view of themselves that exist only in their personal belief system
• As the idealized self-image becomes solidified, neurotics begin to believe in the reality of that image
• Loses touch with real self and use the idealized self as the standard of self-evaluation
• 3 aspects :

             1) Neurotic Search for Glory

                    - Neurotics come to believe in the reality of their idealized self, they begin to incorporate

                      it into all aspects of their lives : their goals, their self-concept, and their rations with

                      others

                          a. Need for Perfection - Drive to mold the whole personality into the idealized self;

                                                                 erects a set of "should" and "should not"
                          b. Neurotic Ambition - Compulsive drive toward superiority. Channels their energies
                                                                into those activities that are most likely to bring success
                          c. Drive toward a Vindictive Triumph - The most destructive element of all.
                                                                                          Desires to take revenge for real or imagine
                                                                                          humiliation
             2) Neurotic claims
                    - Builds a factory world : World out of sync with the real world
                    - Feels entitled to be treated in accordance with their idealized view of themselves
                    - Fail to see that claims of special privilege are unreasonable
                    - If not, met, neurotics become indignant, bewildered, and unable to comprehend why
                      other have not granted their claims.
             3) Neurotic Pride
                    - A false pride based on a realistic view of the true self but on a spurious image of the
                       idealized self
                    - Based on an idealized image of self and it unusually loudly proclaimed in order
                      to protect and support a glorified view of one's self
                    - Because they think themselves glorious, wonderful and perfect, when others fail to treat
                      them with special consideration, their neurotic pride is hurt.
                    - Avoid people who refuse to yield to their neurotic claims

[Form of Self-hatred :]

     1. Relentless demands on the self (exemplified by the tyranny of the should)
     2. Merciless self-accusation (constantly berate themselves) - "I'm really a fraud!"
     3. Self-contempt - Belitting, disparaging, doubting, discrediting, and ridiculing oneself.
                                   "Successful career? It's just luck!"
     4. Self-frustration - "I must not strive for a better job because I'm not good for it."
     5. Self-Torment - Anguishes over a decision, exaggerates pain, cut themselves, start fights that
                                  they are sure to lose, invites physical abuse
     6. Self-destructive actions and impulses
             - Over eating, abusing alcohol/drugs, working too hard, driving recklessly, suicide.
                Quitting a job when it begins to be fulfilling, breaking off a healthy relationship in favor of
                 a neurotic one..

[Oedipus complex]

• Feminism Psychology sight
• Horney saw no evidence for a universal Oedipus complex
• Found only in some people and is an expression of the neurotic need for love
• The neurotic need for affection & Aggression usually begin in childhood and are two of the 3 basic neurotic trends

             - When child clings to parents, his/her main goal is security, not sexual intercourse

• Penis Envy

             - There is no more anatomical reason why girls should be envious of the penis than boys
               should desire a breast or a womb

• Boys express a desire to have a baby : Womb envy