Karen Horney’s Humanistic Development, Assessment Example

The development of Karen Horney’s theories can be seen to be centered on the self.  Her conception of the “real self” and the “ideal self” places the needs of an individual within the real and skewed perceptions of one’s self.  Horney develops ten needs by which individuals live and experience, including a large stress placed on experiences within childhood. Parental influence plays a large role in Horney’s conception of the self.

Parenting and Childhood

The role of one’s parents and childhood pervade the thought of Karen Horney.  Under her conceptions of the real and ideal self, and additionally with the ten needs by which individuals live and experience, these two dynamics are able to dramatically alter these concepts.  One’s experiences from their relationships with parents in one’s childhood can have specific and lasting implications on one’s self and identified needs.

Significance

The role of parenting and childhood are intertwined greatly, according to Horney.  Influences during one’s childhood can have a drastic impact on neurosis in one’s lifetime.  Actions which may cause parental indifference can prove to be debilitating to a child in the development of the self, leading to neuroses.  In this unprotected stage of life, children are able to be greatly affected by the actions of their parents.

Parenting can be seen in terms of the events that take place.  According to Horney, a child experiences these instances of neurosis in response to the perception of events that occur, and not the parent’s intentions.  Thus children may experience the effects of negative experiences, which can then lead to neuroses due to the lack of needs that are fulfilled during these years.

Ten Needs

Horney has identified ten needs that are required by all humans, which are distorted in Horney’s list.  These are needed for all humans to succeed in life.  For a person to be considered neurotic, according to Horney, much less than the teen needs are required.  These teen teens were further condensed into three basic categories by Horney.

Compliance

The compliance category is a process of moving towards people or self-effacement.  The first need is that of affection and approval, where one requires to be liked by others in which they please.  The second need is that of a partner to love and to solve all problems.  Individuals need to find affection, approval, and a partner in order to satisfy the basic needs of compliance, according to Horney.

Aggression

Aggression consists of five needs which are required by all individuals.  There is a need for power, by which all seek strength, though to various degrees.  There is a need to exploit others in order to get the better of them.  A need for social recognition is required, whereby prestige and limelight consists.  The need for personal admiration includes both inner and outer qualities to be valued.  Finally, there is a need for personal achievement, from which all people require the category of aggression.

Detachment

The third and final category is detachment.  This category is comprised of three needs which tend to move away from people, in its neurotic form.  The first need is one of self-sufficiency and independence, or autonomy.  The next requirement is the need for perfection, where individuals seek this in their well-being.  Finally, all individuals need to restrict life practices within narrow borders.

Theory of the Self

According to Horney, the self is the core of one’s own being and potential.  Self-actualization allows one to be healthy, while neurotic individuals are not able to achieve this.  Horney’s theory of the self is split into two views of ourselves, where the real self and the ideal self are found.

Real Self

The real self is actually who we are.  Horney described the real self as “the alive, unique, personal center of ourselves” (1950, p. 155).  For instance, one could be a parent, child, brother, or sister.  It also consists of potential for growth, power, realization of gifts, and happiness.

Horney viewed the real self as the core of the individual.  Under favorable circumstances the real self is the core of inherent, constructive, and evolutionary forces, where the real self can grow and unfold in a dynamic process of self-realization.  The real self contains deficiencies that one is aware of.

Ideal Self

The ideal self is what an individual believes that he or she should be.  It is used as a model in which the individual can develop his or her potential.  It is also involved in helping one achieve self-actualization.  It can haunt neurotic individuals of what they should be.

Neurosis

Horney’s analysis of neurosis diverged from others in her time.  Many of her contemporaries believed it was a negative malfunctioning of the mind, which was in response to negative stimuli.  Horney believed it to be more of a continuous process, where these common occurrences would occur from time to time within one’s lifetime.  She developed this theory based off of data from her patients.

Searching for Glory

When the real self is met with unfavorable conditions, insecurities and anxieties develop.  The resulting attitudes correspond to the three categories of basic needs, in which one moves toward people in respect to compliance, in which one moves against people in respect to aggression, and in which one moves away from people in respect to detachment.  Someone who does not have these favorable conditions becomes rigid, as opposed to one who has healthy relationship habits under more positive and beneficial conditions and needs.

The unfavorable conditions spawn a number of needs, inhibitions, sensitivities, and newfound moral values.  In respect to the needs that aren’t met, an individual develops these underlying neurotic tendencies in order to compensate.  For instance, an aggressive child will place a significant value on strength when this positive form of the need is not met, which begins the result of these unfavorable conditions.

One who experiences such events can develop a further idealized image of one’s self.  One lifts oneself above others and alienates one from one’s true self.  Strategic and artificial ways to cope with others makes one override one’s true feelings, thoughts, and wishes.

These manners of coping can be seen to transform the categories of the ten basic needs Horney has developed.  The area of compliance can transform one to become saintliness, love, and goodness.  Aggressiveness becomes omnipotence, heroism, strength, and leadership.  Finally, detachment can become independence, wisdom, and self-sufficiency.  These transformations occur in a perverted form of the word.

Results

Eventually a neurotic person will become this image of the idealized self.  One associates oneself so completely in this image that one becomes what one “truly is,” as it is what one could or should be.  Thus, it becomes that of actualizing the idealized self, one searching for glory.

Tyranny of the Should

As a result, one is lost in this complicated system of what one should do, towards perfection.  As Horney states, “we can easily lose our bearings in a maze of intricacies” (1945, p. 143).  Thus, one becomes molded into a supreme being of one’s own making.  This is seen in the Tyranny of the Should.

In the Tyranny of the Should, one becomes lost in this transformation of the idealized self into actualization, according to Horney..  It compromises what we can and cannot do, and how we should act, feel, and know.  These demands on the self become both too rigid and too difficult.

Someone in this situation can behave in one extreme direction or another.  If one assumes responsibility for one’s childhood or wants to be positive in regards to this, one may blame one’s parents or embellish one’s childhood, respectively.  An absence of conscious resentment is a retrospective should, according to Horney’s theory.

One becomes unbearable when faced with these extreme shoulds.  Seeking to remove it quickly, some may use their imagination or power of will to attempt this feat.  If it is driven under the surface, it will manifest in a disguised form, according to Horney.  It can also cause other negative reactions, such as fear, despondence, or irritability.

References

Horney, Karen. (1950).  Neurosis and Human Growth.  New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.

Horney, Karen. (1945). Our Inner Conflicts. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company