PREFACE: ABOUT THE TEST

Total 50 questions
MCQs 30 marks
 Chapters 1, 3, 7

Essay type question 20

 Chapter 3, 7
 Chapter 3 – 3.6
 Chapter 7 – 7.6.3
THE SOCIALLY-ORIENTED PSYCHOANALYTIC
THEORIES
OF
FROMM AND HORNEY
Week 5.1
INTRODUCTION
Socially-oriented psychoanalysis; aka, Neo-Freudians
Pays attention to the social dimension of human existence: social and cultural factors
Consciousness is manifested in the concept of a self
Individuals can strengthen the self – and not be swamped by society’s demands for
conformity
KAREN HORNEY
1885-1852; Born in Hamburg, studied at the Uni of Freiburg, Berlin
Ran a private practice and taught at Berlin Institute of Psychoanalysis
from 1918 to 1932
Moved to the US in 1932 to be co-director of Chicago Inst of
Psychoanalysis
Broke away from traditional psychoanalysis in 1941, founding the
American Inst of Psychoanalysis
“… her move to America made her realise that the biological
determinism and emphasis on sexuality of Freudian thinking was not
appropriate to American people of the depression years” (p. 155)
Human behaviour shaped by culture; the interaction between person and
environment creates the conflicts from which problems arise
Nuclear family as well as broader culture
KAREN HORNEY
From intrapsychic to an interpersonal, even
psychosocial foundation for psychology – diverges
from her earlier Freudian roots
An optimistic view of humanity: personality tends
towards development, growth, realising of
potentials
Neurotic people need to be liberated from that
which block their growth potential
What is it that blocks our growth?
HORNEY: STRUCTURE OF
PERSONALITY
Horney distinguishes among three selves:
The Idealised Self: The product of a feeling of
inferiority; common in societies that place high
value on prestige and competition
The Actual Self: How we consciously act in daily
life; we often reject this self because it does not
meet the demands of the ideal self
The Real Self: Emerges when the person has
relinquished all the techniques developed for
dealing with anxiety and resolving conflict
HORNEY: DYNAMICS OF
PERSONALITY
Growth principle: replaces Freud’s id
All energy is naturally channelled in such a way as to ensure that the individual will
develop her or his unique potential, unless it becomes blocked by some ‘anti-natural’
influence… e.g., family, society

Two crucial needs

1. Need for security
2. Need for satisfaction
HORNEY: DYNAMICS OF
PERSONALITY
Factors promoting /inhibiting growth
1. Parents act with real love and warmth
2. Contrast: parental irresponsibility and ‘neuroticising cultural influences’

The latter refers to conflicting cultural values – can you think of any?
HORNEY:
DYNAMICS OF
PERSONALITY

Inhibited growth leads to:

1. Basic hostility
2. Basic anxiety

Both hostility and anxiety are

repressed and unconscious;
they manifest as neurotic
needs.

(Interpersonal styles: pp.

160-161: self study)
ERICH
FROMM
1900-1980
Humanistic psychoanalysis: a
synthesis of the thought of Freud
and (early) Marx
The struggle for freedom against
society’s pressure to conform:
Alienation
Human being is dualistic: has
animal as well as human nature
Physiological needs: sex, hunger,
thirst
But people can transcend their
purely instinctive animal nature
People have to confront the
existential and historical
dichotomies inherent in
human existence
Existential dichotomies:
insoluble conflict inherent in
human existence (e.g.,
mortality)
Historical dichotomies:
conflicts that can be
overcome (e.g., poverty,
racism, inequality)
 The importance of self-consciousness; we
are conscious of our consciousness…

FROMM: (The human as ‘creation’s joke’…)

Two fundamentally human processes:
STRUCTURE reason and conscience

OF Reason: allows people to transcend animal

nature and deal with the dichotomies of
PERSONALITY their existence
Conscience: the regulating agent of the
personality; evaluates own behaviour
according to norms and values
FROMM:
STRUCTURE OF
PERSONALITY

Fromm distinguishes
two kinds of
conscience:
Authoritarian: voice
of internalised
external authority
Humanistic: own
inner voice
FROMM:
DYNAMICS OF
PERSONALITY

Human needs:
1. Relatedness
2. Transcendence
3. Rootedness
4. Personal identity
5. Frame of reference