fei75766_ch06_179-205.indd 204  02/06/20 11:32 AM
Part II    Psychodynamic Theories204
Although Horney adopted a middle stance regarding conscious versus 
unconscious motivation,  she believed that most people have only limited 
awareness of their motives. Neurotics, especially, have little understanding of 
themselves and do not see that their behaviors guarantee the continuation of 
their neuroses. They mislabel their personal characteristics, couching them in 
socially acceptable terms, while remaining largely unaware of their basic con -
flict, their self-hate, their neurotic pride and neurotic claims, and their need for 
a vindictive triumph.
Horney’s concept of personality strongly emphasized social influences  
more than biological ones. Psychological differences between men and 
women, for example, are due more to cultural and societal expectations than 
anatomy. To Horney, the Oedipus complex and penis envy are not inevita -
ble consequences of biology but rather are shaped by social forces. Horney 
did not neglect biological factors completely, but her main emphasis was on 
social influences.
Because Horney’s theory looks almost exclusively at neuroses, it tends 
to highlight similarities among people  more than uniqueness. Not all neurot -
ics are alike, of course, and Horney described three basic types—the help -
less, the hostile, and the detached. However, she placed little emphasis on 
individual differences within each of these categories.
Key Terms and Concepts
•Horney insisted thatsocial and cultural influences weremore important than
biological ones.
•Children wholackwarmth andaffection failtomeet theirneeds for safety 
and satisfaction.
•These feelings ofisolation andhelplessness trigger basic anxiety, orfeelings 
ofisolation andhelplessness inapotentially hostile world.
•Theinability ofpeople tousedifferent tactics intheirrelationships with
others generates thebasic conflict: thatis,theincompatible tendencies to
move toward, against, andaway from people.
•Horney called thetendencies tomove toward, against, oraway from people 
thethree neurotic trends.
•Healthy people solve theirbasic conflict byusing allthree neurotic trends, 
whereas neurotics compulsively adopt onlyoneofthese trends.
•Thethree neurotic trends (moving toward, against, oraway from people) are
acombination of10neurotic needs thatHorney hadearlier identified.
•Both healthy andneurotic people experience intrapsychic conflicts thathave
become partoftheirbelief system. Thetwomajor intrapsychic conflicts are
theidealized self-image andself-hatred.
•Theidealized self-image results inneurotics’ attempts tobuild agodlike 
picture ofthemselves.Final PDF to printer