Karen's Mature Theory
Karen Horney wrote two books called The Neurotic personality of Our Time and New Ways in Psychoanalysis, with these two books Horney developed her Mature Theory. Horney focused more on the present, and she also included environmental and social factors into the client's situation in order to help that person better, a difference to Freud as he looked at the past and as Horney (1933) points out, that Freud has a biological background and that this has influenced many of his observations.
According to Horney, human beings defend themselves when they feel unsafe, unvalued and unloved, that people can adopt both interpersonal and intrapsychic neurotic strategies to cope with these events.
Interpersonal strategies involve isolation by moving away from a person, or helplessness towards someone and having hostility by moving against someone as a defence.
These situations, as Horney pointed out can bring out new behaviours and beliefs within our personality and a new belief of a bargain with fate, that if the person takes obedience and punishment that they will be rewarded for that in another period of life.
Intrapsychic strategies are linked to the interpersonal as a compensation to the feeling of being inadequate, to having low self-esteem and also the feeling of weakness. These thoughts and feelings conflict with our self image and the ideal self, as we look upon our actual self and these inconsistencies can bring about neuroticism in defence.
Horney believed that when we see this part of ourselves, we can then move on to further self analysis to understand the reasons for our split in the self in essence to become whole again.
