Karen Horney was a German psychoanalyst. Having first-hand experience with depression in her childhood, Horney dedicated her time and work into school. Horney would enter medical school at the beginning of the twentieth century, and she would eventually develop a theory of neurosis that is still prominent today. Horney was considered a Neo-Freudian, someone who believed in the basic foundation of Freud’s principles, but she disagreed on some parts as well. For example, Horney rejected Freud’s views on female psychology. Karen Horney made significant contributions in the areas of humanism, self-psychology, psychoanalysis, and feminine psychology. Her opposition to Freud’s theories about women generated more interest in the psychology of women. Horney also believed that people were able to act as their own therapists, emphasizing the personal role each person has in their own mental health and encouraging self-analysis and self-help.
Horney was a Neo-Freudian, and therefore she believed in many of Freud’s basic concepts, however her ideas differed from Freud’s as well. She believed childhood social, not sexual as Freud believed, experiences were crucial to the formation personality.
Karen Horney believed that neurosis resulted from basic anxiety caused by interpersonal relationships. Her theory proposes that strategies used to cope with anxiety can be overused, causing them to take on the appearance of needs. According to Horney, basic anxiety (and therefore neurosis) could result from a variety of things including, “ . . . direct or indirect domination, indifference, erratic behavior, lack of respect for the child’s individual needs, lack of real guidance, disparaging attitudes, too much admiration or the absence of it, lack of reliable warmth, having to take sides in parental disagreements, too much or too little responsibility, over-protection, isolation from other children, injustice, discrimination, unkept promises, hostile atmosphere, and so on and so on.”
These neurotic needs can be classified into three broad categories:
Needs that move you towards others. These neurotic needs cause individuals to seek affirmation and acceptance from others and are often described as needy or clingy as they seek out approval and love.
Needs that move you away from others. These neurotic needs create hostility and antisocial behavior. These individuals are often described as cold, indifferent, and detached.
Needs that move you against others. These neurotic needs result in hostility and a need to control other people. These individuals are often described as difficult, dominant, and unkind.
The neurotic needs come to existence because of a person’s intensive and compulsive pursuit of their satisfaction as the only way to resolve basic anxiety. Satisfying these needs will not help us feel safe and secure but will aid only in desire to escape the discomfort caused by our anxiety. We pursue gratification of these needs solely to cope with anxiety, we tend to focus on only one need and compulsively seek its satisfaction in all situations. Aggressive personalities find their satisfaction in having their superiority affirmed through others by excelling and receiving recognition. Satisfaction with detached personalities comes from being self-sufficient and obtaining an emotional distance from everyone around them. Compliant personalities seek their satisfaction from the affection and approval they receive from the people around them. Compliant personality people tend to achieve a goal through the manipulation of others and the present themselves as helpless; they tend to hide their desire for control and exploitation.
In her book Self-Analysis (1942), Horney outlined the 10 neurotic needs she had identified:
The Neurotic Need for Affection and Approval: This need includes the desires to be liked, to please other people, and meet the expectations of others. People with this type of need are extremely sensitive to rejection and criticism and fear the anger or hostility of others.
The Neurotic Need for a Partner Who Will Take Over One’s Life: This involves the need to be centered on a partner. People with this need suffer extreme fear of being abandoned by their partner. Often times, these individuals place an exaggerated importance on love and believe that having a partner will resolve all of life’s troubles.
The Neurotic Need to Restrict One’s Life Within Narrow Borders: Individuals with this need prefer to remain inconspicuous and unnoticed. They are undemanding and content with little. They avoid wishing for material things, often making their own needs secondary and undervaluing their own talents and abilities.
The Neurotic Need for Power: Individuals with this need seek power for its own sake. They usually praise strength, despise weakness, and will exploit or dominate other people. These people fear personal limitations, helplessness, and uncontrollable situations.
The Neurotic Need to Exploit Others: These individuals view others in terms of what can be gained through association with them. People with this need generally pride themselves on their ability to exploit other people and are often focused on manipulating others to obtain desired objectives, including such things as ideas, power, money, or sex.
The Neurotic Need for Prestige: Individuals with a need for prestige value themselves in terms of public recognition and acclaim. Material possessions, personality characteristics, professional accomplishments, and loved ones are evaluated based on prestige value. These individuals often fear public embarrassment and loss of social status.
The Neurotic Need for Personal Admiration: Individuals with a neurotic need for personal admiration are narcissistic and have an exaggerated self-perception. They want to be admired based on this imagined selfview, not upon how they really are.
The Neurotic Need for Personal Achievement: According to Horney, people push themselves to achieve greater and greater things as a result of basic insecurity. These individuals fear failure and feel a constant need to accomplish more than other people and to top even their own earlier successes.
The Neurotic Need for Self-Sufficiency and Independence: These individuals exhibit a “loner” mentality, distancing themselves from others in order to avoid being tied down or dependent upon other people.
The Neurotic Need for Perfection and Unassailability: These individuals constantly strive for complete infallibility. A common feature of this neurotic need is searching for personal flaws in order to quickly change or cover up these perceived imperfections.
From MPC-003 Personality: Theories and Assessment – IGNOU
Karen Horney was a German psychoanalyst. Having first-hand experience with depression in her childhood, Horney dedicated her time and work into school. Horney would enter medical school at the beginning of the twentieth century, and she would eventually develop a theory of neurosis that is still prominent today. Horney was considered a Neo-Freudian, someone who believed in the basic foundation of Freud’s principles, but she disagreed on some parts as well. For example, Horney rejected Freud’s views on female psychology. Karen Horney made significant contributions in the areas of humanism, self-psychology, psychoanalysis, and feminine psychology. Her opposition to Freud’s theories about women generated more interest in the psychology of women. Horney also believed that people were able to act as their own therapists, emphasizing the personal role each person has in their own mental health and encouraging self-analysis and self-help.
Horney was a Neo-Freudian, and therefore she believed in many of Freud’s basic concepts, however her ideas differed from Freud’s as well. She believed childhood social, not sexual as Freud believed, experiences were crucial to the formation personality.
Karen Horney believed that neurosis resulted from basic anxiety caused by interpersonal relationships. Her theory proposes that strategies used to cope with anxiety can be overused, causing them to take on the appearance of needs. According to Horney, basic anxiety (and therefore neurosis) could result from a variety of things including, “ . . . direct or indirect domination, indifference, erratic behavior, lack of respect for the child’s individual needs, lack of real guidance, disparaging attitudes, too much admiration or the absence of it, lack of reliable warmth, having to take sides in parental disagreements, too much or too little responsibility, over-protection, isolation from other children, injustice, discrimination, unkept promises, hostile atmosphere, and so on and so on.”
These neurotic needs can be classified into three broad categories:
The neurotic needs come to existence because of a person’s intensive and compulsive pursuit of their satisfaction as the only way to resolve basic anxiety. Satisfying these needs will not help us feel safe and secure but will aid only in desire to escape the discomfort caused by our anxiety. We pursue gratification of these needs solely to cope with anxiety, we tend to focus on only one need and compulsively seek its satisfaction in all situations. Aggressive personalities find their satisfaction in having their superiority affirmed through others by excelling and receiving recognition. Satisfaction with detached personalities comes from being self-sufficient and obtaining an emotional distance from everyone around them. Compliant personalities seek their satisfaction from the affection and approval they receive from the people around them. Compliant personality people tend to achieve a goal through the manipulation of others and the present themselves as helpless; they tend to hide their desire for control and exploitation.
In her book Self-Analysis (1942), Horney outlined the 10 neurotic needs she had identified:
From MPC-003 Personality: Theories and Assessment – IGNOU