Karen Horney (1885-1952) was a German psychologist. She was the first psychologist who introduced Feminine Psychology in 1922. Initially, she practiced Freud’s psychoanalytical techniques, since she was trained in the psychoanalytic doctrine, but later on, she disappointed with Freud’s methodology of psychotherapy, as it was not helpful in solving her problem. Therefore, she adopted self-analysis. She rejected Freud’s conception of penis envy (female’s envy towards a male because she has no penis while he has) and presented its counterpart, the womb envy (male’s envy towards a female because she can give birth to a child while he can’t) instead. She was of the view that Freud’s concept of penis envoy is a product of male dominated society, where woman are considered inferior to man. She believed that female consider themselves inferior to males not because they are biologically weaker than male, but because of their weaker status in the society. She don’t deny the fact that most of the women feel themselves unworthy, however, according to her, the main cause of this sense of inferiority is not their physical structure but the discriminatory behavior of male dominated society faced by them for centuries. Being disappointed by their weaker position in the society, some women may deny of their femininity and may wish for masculinity. Horney termed this situation as ‘’The flight from Womanhood’’. Her theory is a rebellion against Freud theory of personality, which, according to Horney, is, generally, male oriented. She rejected Freud’s five stages of personality development. She was of the view that there are no universal stages, which shape a child personality, but in fact, it is the social and cultural factors, which determine the blue prints of a child personality. Similarly, Parent’s behavior with their children is another determinant of a child personality. Children need the love and affection of their parents. In case, they are not properly loved and cared by their parents, they will feel themselves insecure and unsafe. Consequently, they develop hostility towards their parents, which will result in their neurotic behavior. Usually, they will repress their hostility in the following ways:
- If children are kept in an excessive dependent state, their feelings of helplessness will encourage. Therefore, they will not dare to show their hostility towards their parents because they need them and can’t do without them.
- If children are made frightened by their parent’s harsh or unreasonable behavior, they will repress their hostility because of their fear from parents.
- If parents are not honest in their warmth and affection, children will easily know that their parent’s love and affection is fake, but here too, they will not show their hostility because they know that something is better than nothing.
- Sometimes, children don’t show their hostility because they feel themselves guilty by doing so.
According to Horney, this repressed hostility will manifest itself in a form called basic anxiety, which is a starting point of the later neuroses. To cope with this situation, children often take the following steps.
- They strive to get love and affection from others by hook or by crook.
- They will not show their resentment against the perverse behavior of other people. They think that if they don’t hurt others, they will be safe. Therefore, they will remain submissive to others all the time.
- At times, they will try to gain power because they think that power is the only solution of all their problems; nobody will harm them if they gain a powerful position in the society.
- Sometimes, they will try to keep aloof from others, not physically but psychologically. They think that by becoming independent of others, they can minimize the risk of being hurt by them. Therefore, they try to minimizing their internal needs, need of security and safety, in order to keep themselves safe against basic anxiety.
Horney says that the main purpose of these four self-protective mechanisms is to get rid of basic anxiety, but unfortunately, due to their incompatible nature, they can’t be harmonized with each other to achieve a single goal. For example, you can’t remain submissive to others while trying to attain power over them. Similarly, being withdrawn from others while trying to get their love and affection is not possible at the same time. Therefore, it should be kept in mind that practicing more than one mechanism at a time may result in further conflicts. Horney was of the view that any of these self-protective mechanisms may become a permanent part of our personality and thereby influence our later behavior. She described ten defenses against basic anxiety, which she termed neurotic needs. They are given as under:
- Affection and approval
- A dominant partner
- Power
- Exploitation
- Prestige
- Admiration
- Achievement or ambition
- Self-sufficiency
- Perfection
- Narrow limits to life
In fact, the ten neurotic needs encompass the four self-protective mechanisms against basic anxiety as under:
- Gaining Affection=Affection and approval
- Being Submissive=Dominant partner
- Attaining power= power+Exploitation+Prestige+Admiration+Achievement or ambition
- Withdrawn=Self-sufficiency+Perfection+Narrow limits to life
Horney reformulated, in her later writings, the above list of ten neurotic needs and classified them in three different categories, which she termed as neurotic trends. These trends relates to our compulsive attitude towards the self and others. Neurotic persons are compelled to act in accordance with at least one of these trends indiscriminately all the times. The three trends lead to three different types of personality, which are given as under:
- Movement towards other people=Compliant personality
- Movement against other people=Aggressive personality
- Movement away from other people=The detached personality
The Compliant Personality
Persons of compliant personality have a tendency to move toward other people and get their love, affection and approval. To get the love and affection of others, they adopt such behaviors, which make other people happy and satisfied. Compliant personality always tries to please others even at the cost of their own needs and desires. They remain subservient and submissive to others. They don’t have the courage to act against the will and thrill of others because they see themselves weaker than others. According to Horney, compliant personality is the result of childhood repressed hostility. In fact, they want to control, exploit and manipulate others but act in the opposite way.
The Aggressive Personality
Aggressive personalities tend to move against other people. They don’t care about other’s miseries or problems. They know nothing but the satisfaction of their own needs and desires. They are always in a quest for superiority. Therefore, they attempt constantly to surpass others in every field of life and get supremacy at any cost. They have no fear of rejection or disapproval by others. Their behavior is subversive and domineering. Their friendship and relations with others are based on selfish objectives and their own interest. As that of a compliant personality, the aim of an aggressive personality is also to combat basic anxiety.
The Detached Personality
Persons having detached personality tend to avoid others. They prefer to keep psychologically isolated from others. They neither love nor hate others. They are not interested in helping or cooperating with others. Nothing is more important to them than a complete privacy. However, to remain completely detached from others, they must have enough resources to become self-sufficient and independent of others. Therefore, they must work hard to secure and maintain their resources. Their independent nature makes them sensitive to any effort, which influence or obligate them. Like aggressive personality, detached personality also wants superiority but its way of attaining superiority is different from that of aggressive personality. Aggressive personality achieves superiority by competing with others while detached personality achieves it by not competing actively with others while aggressive personality wants it at all costs. Horney found that a conflict might arise due to the basic incompatibility of these neurotic trends. She was of the view, that the main difference between a normal and a neurotic person is that the former harmonize successfully all the three trends and adopt them according to the need and suitability of the situation while the later fails in doing so.
According to Horney, everyone of us draw an image of oneself. This self-image may be either true, based on the actual potentiality, abilities, strengths and weaknesses of a person, or false, based on the qualities/characteristics idealized by a person but not actually possessed by him/her. Horney says that a neurotic person constructs an idealized self-image of himself/herself, which is not based on reality. To realize his/her unattainable ideals he/she indulges in an activity called the ‘’ tyranny of the shoulds’’ by Horney. In this situation, he/she tries to act against his/her real nature. He/she thinks that by doing so, he/she will become a perfect person, but in spite of his/her constant attempt, he/she fails in achieving this goal. However, he/she still clings to his/her ideals and takes the easy way out, projecting his/her own conflict onto others. Horney termed this process as externalization. She says that externalization may temporarily help the neurotic person in reducing his/her basic anxiety, but it is not a permanent solution of his/her problem, bringing the real and idealized self-images together.
