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Madeleine Nicole G.

Bernardo Psych 150


2015-07286 Ma’am Divine Salvador
Psychodynamic Theories Reflection Paper

In general, psychodynamic theories are characterized by theories developed by Sigmund


Freud and his followers, that in general view personality as being driven by conscious and
unconscious forces, like unconscious beliefs and desires. Out of the roster of psychodynamic
theories, I find that the one that truly resonates with me the most are the theories of Karen
Horney.

Horney’s main focal point of study was the study of various neuroses, as well as how
personality was shaped not only by biological influences, but also by social and cultural
conditions. Horney held specific importance to the impact of a difficult childhood to the
formation of neurotic needs, which I personally find to make quite a lot of sense. After all, a
child patterns his future life experiences to his experience and exposure as a child. Going back to
Horney’s focus on neuroses, she came up with a list of 10 neurotic needs that in turn fall into the
category of 3 neurotic trends. This list of 10 neurotic needs really resonated with me, especially
because I find that I do many of the things mentioned in the list. Neurotic need number 1
mentions how there is a “neurotic needs for affection and approval” and how “neurotics attempt
indiscriminately to please others and live up to the expectations of others.” In my day to day life
I found this to be quite applicable, especially since I oftentimes find myself changing how I act
around certain people in order for them to like me more. Aside from this, what surprised me is
the fact that even if Horney mentioned how moving toward others and moving against others are
polar opposites, many facets of my personality also fall under the neurotic needs of moving
against others. I always aim to maintain a self image of being important, respected, and the best.
While I don’t find myself having a strong need to defeat others in order to give myself
ascendancy, I did relate to the fact that I neurotically feel the need to be the best in everything
that I do, from the littlest things like getting the highest score on a quiz. Partly, I attribute my
desire to always be the best to my upbringing, and how in my traditional Chinese household my
parents really put a premium on being better than everyone, and how important it is to excel in
the various fields of expertise. This also goes back to Horney’s theory that open rejection (which
stems from a lack of genuine warmth) may leave an impression on a child’s development, which
I really think why I liked Horney’s explanations and theory that much.

Her explanations as well of the neurotic search for glory were applicable, due to the fact
that it mentioned that “People with a neurotic search for glory can never be happy with
themselves because when they realize that their real self does not match the insatiable demands
of their idealized self, they will begin to hate and despise themselves.” Specifically, I found that
the “relentless demands of the self” , “merciless self accusation”, and “self destructive actions
and impulses” had a real connection to how I was living my life. I have often found myself
getting upset about how I am not a certain way, consequently blaming myself regularly for
failures that are sometimes out of my own personal control, and even overworking to
compensate for the perceived deficiencies and failures I had in my life.
Nonetheless, Horney also mentioned that in order for people to grow in the direction of
self realization, they must be able to give up the belief in an idealized self image, abdicate their
neurotic searches, and finally be able to change their self hatred into acceptance. This gave me
insight into how I can slowly give up my own illusion that I always have to be perfect, accepted
and well liked, and how with that I can slowly but surely move toward self-realization. However
I do agree with some of the critique of Horney, especially since she makes mention of
self-realization without really providing any explanation as to what self-realization is.

The concepts that Horney mentioned really brought light to how my personality is, and
how in my constant search for acceptance and respect by my peers, I am in turn doing a self
defeating action of self-hatred. While I am far from compulsively sticking to one neurotic trend,
I appreciate how those concepts really made me understand the parts of my personality that I can
fix and improve upon, and how I never really thought about the extent of some of my
behaviours. All in all, I enjoyed learning about the concepts that Horney explained in her
psychoanalytic social theory, chiefly because I found that many of the points that she elucidated
showed a real life application to me and my personality. I was actually quite surprised at how
accurate some of my tendencies and the neurotic needs she mentioned fit entirely well, but I
think it’s just reason for me to work on my personality and to make myself a better person all in
all. I appreciate how she had a more optimistic approach, and how people had the capacity to
achieve self realization. Carl Jung, another psychodynamic theorist, did mention how “to come
to grips with the darkness within ourselves is to achieve realization of the shadow”, and with
what I have learned about the part of myself that I never really gave much thought about, it gives
me legitimate hope that in the future I can accept and realize those qualities in myself.

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