Explain Horney’s concepts of basic anxiety, neurotic needs, and idealized self-image.
Karl Horney was more attracted to Adler’s theory. According to her, getting involved in the promiscuous relations and medical field, she was behaving more like a man. This made her feel superior. Later she was also involved with the younger boys, most of whom were getting trained under supervision. However, she did not develop any attachment with them.
She was trained in Berlin; however, she did not agree with all the Freud’s theories. She wrote several journals, which were related to the female’s personality and the problems associated with the females’ sexuality. Because of her growing disinterest with the Freud’s theories, she broke with the Freudian group and founded the Psychoanalysis institute of America.
Horney considered basic anxiety as an important concept. Basic anxiety is developed as a result of lack of love, care and protection from parents. The dominant nature of the parents, their isolation and other factors are necessary to develop the basic anxiety in a child. Thus, this condition is not inborn; instead, it is shaped by the social forces.
However, she agreed with one of the Freudian’s views that the personality of the individual is conditioned in the infancy. Hence, the overall emphasis was made on the parent-child relationship, by Horney. According to her, the response to the parents’ behavior results in the development of neurotic needs. In other words, if the parents are not loving and caring, neurotic needs are developed in the child.
These include affection, self-sufficiency and achievement. Movement to- and movement away from the people were two concepts developed by her. Moving towards the other people make a person to seek for the love and care from the other persons and moving away from the people tend to make him/her self-sufficient and do not let them depend upon the others. The false idea of personality makes a person to develop an idealized self-image. It acts as mask as a result of which the neurotic persons are unable to understand their true nature.