CHAPTER 5
PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
KAREN HORNEY
ERICH FROMM
Karen Horney was one of the first women to oppose Freud and to speak directly to the issue of feminine psychology.
Horney viewed Basic Anxiety as a prevailing feeling of being lonely and helpless in a hostile world.
Horneys views differs from Freud because she did not see anxiety as inevitable, but rather, as a result of social forces.
Individuals develop certain defense mechanisms to permit them to cope with their anxieties.
When these defense mechanisms become exaggerated or inappropriate, they may be referred to as neurotic needs or trends.Horney
identified Ten neurotic Trends:
Exaggerated need for affection and approval
Need for a dominant partner
Exaggerated need for power
Need to exploit others
Exaggerated need for social recognition or prestige
Exaggerated need for personal admiration
Exaggerated need for personal achievement
Need to restrict ones life within narrow boundaries
Exaggerated need for self sufficiency and independence
Need for perfection and un-assailabilityHorney makes a clear distinction between the real self and ideal self. Real self
is what we are, those things that are true about us. The ideal self is what we think we should be.
In the normal individual, the real self and the ideal self agree (that is, we know what we are, yet we have a realistic
concept of what our potentials are)
In a neurotic individual, the real self and the ideal self are disconnected or separate. Example
A doctor who believes that an ideal doctor never loses a patient to death is being unrealistic
FEMININE PSYCHOLOGY
Horneys view of women is almost directly opposite of Freuds. Whereas Freud suggests the phenomenon of penis envy in women,
Horney points out the phenomenon of womb envy in men. She suggests that womens sense of inferiority is not constitutional
but culturally acquired.
ERIC FROMM
(1900 1980)Erich Fromm was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1900, the only child of a deeply orthodox Jewish family. He did
not formally practice religion, but he referred to himself as an "atheistic mystic". He describes his parents as neurotics.
His mother was depression prone and his father was moody and overanxious. Fromm came to the United States and worked with
Karen Horney until an apparent disagreement caused them to go in separate directions.
Fromm felt that the basic human condition that presented a psychological problem for man was "freedom".As the human race
has gained more freedom by transcending nature and other animals, people have become increasingly characterized by feelings
of separation and isolation.Consequently, a major theme of Fromms work deals with the concept of loneliness.
ESCAPE MECHANISMS
To deal with the problem of freedom, Fromm suggests that humans have learned to utilize escape mechanisms. Three common
forms of escape described by Fromm are:Authoritarianism (one seeks to escape the problem of freedom by adhering to a form
of submission, or some seek to domination others)
A common feature of authoritarianism is the belief that ones life is determined by forces outside ones self,
ones interest, or ones wishes, and that the only way to be happy is to submit to those forces.
Destructiveness (seeks to resolve the problem of freedom by the elimination of others and or the outside world)
"The destruction of the world is the last, almost desperate attempt to save my self from being crushed by
it"
Automaton Conformity (one ceases to be themselves and adopts the type of personality preferred by their culture. This is
akin to a chameleon that changes his color to match its surroundings)
Such individuals may no longer feel alone and anxious, but they have paid a high price, "the loss of self".
BASIC NEEDS
Fromm suggests our human condition of freedom gives rise to five basic needs (1955)Relatedness (need to relate to others)Transcendence
(need to rise above the level of creature-ness and become active creators) Rooted-ness (need to feel we belong)Sense of identity
(need to become aware of self and that we are unique)Frame of orientation and object devotion (need for stable and consistent
frame of reference by which we can organize our perceptions and make sense of our environment).These needs are part of our
existence, and must be met in order for a person to develop fully according to Fromm.
CHARACTER ORIENTATIONS
A persons character is determined in large measure by the culture in which they reside and its objectives. WHAT DOES THIS
MEAN?
Sweden = wine at every meal
Turkey = men dance with other men is common
India = cows are sacred/though starvation exist
Gangs = tough persona
Consequently, it is possible to view social character types that are frequently shared by the individuals of a particular
group or society.Fromm identified five character orientations that are common in Western Society (1947) Receptive ( believed
the only way to obtain something is from outside sources).Exploitative (take things they want by force or cunning, in other
words, by using others).Hoarding (save what they already have; misers toward others, the scrooge persona).Marketing (see themselves
as a commodity, changes their values as they perceive the market to change, be what others want you to be).Productive (value
themselves and others for who they are, takes pride in what they have created).
People may not necessarily be simply one of these characters, but in fact might exhibit a combination of types at various
times.
Fromms character orientations have both positive and negative qualities, but on the whole, Fromm saw the first four as
largely unproductive.
HOW DOES FROMMS PERSPECTIVES DIFFER FROM THAT OF FRUED
The primary difference between Fromms theory of character types and orientations, and that of Freud is that Freud envisioned
the fixation of libido in certain body zones as the basis of future character types. Fromm set the fundamental basis of character
in the different ways in which a person deals with basic human conditions.
