What are the details of Honey's neurosis theory?

Horney's analysis of neurotic personality

Ji

If the classic psychoanalysis founded by Freud was conceived in the Victorian era, that is to say, it is a reflection of the spirit of the times in which Freud lived, then the spirit of the times on which the classic psychoanalysis was based began to change from the 1920s to 1930s, as the famous psychologist Murphy described: "After the 20s, psychologists began to add the phrase' in our culture' after each overview of human behavior, just like in the last 20s. Honeye (K), a personality psychologist and psychotherapist who has received strict and systematic training in classical psychoanalysis, is keenly aware of all this and tries to reflect it in academic research and treatment practice through his unremitting efforts. She said: "Although I keep the basic theory of Professor Freud, I think my research will go in a different direction from Freud in order to better understand it. "The so-called' different directions' here is to deny the prominent position of the' sex' factor, abandon the concepts of instinct and libido, and focus on how cultural factors affect people; How social conditions restrict psychology and behavior; And how social culture is related to neurosis. The most striking thing in Honey's research is her discussion of neurotic personality.

basic anxiety

Honey is convinced that neurosis is caused by inappropriate interpersonal relationships, and focuses on the relationship between children and parents, that is, parent-child relationship. She believes that the most basic need of children is to get a sense of security, which is provided by parents. If parents can really care and care for their children, their safety needs will be met and their body and mind will develop normally; On the contrary, if parents can't provide or even damage their children's sense of security, it will lead to neurosis.

In Honey's view, parents' behaviors that damage their children's sense of security mainly include indifference, rejection, hostility, ridicule, humiliation, eccentricity, and breaking promises. If parents always treat their children in one or more of the above ways, children will be hostile to their parents, but social culture does not allow it, so children must be suppressed. In this way, children will be placed in an unfortunate situation: on the one hand, they are hostile to their parents; On the other hand, we must restrain hostility and have to rely on them in order to survive. More unfortunately, this hostility caused by parents' improper upbringing will be generalized and projected on the world around them and everyone else. Children will think that everyone and everything around them are untrustworthy and dangerous. In this case, the child will inevitably experience a kind of "basic anxiety", that is, "a child's sense of isolation and helplessness in a hostile world." Honey said: "These factors I mentioned have produced a state of gestation, which has been unconsciously enhanced and penetrated into all aspects. It is a fertile ground for neurosis at any time. Because it plays a fundamental role in neurosis, I gave it a specific name: basic anxiety, which is inextricably intertwined with basic hostility. "

In short, the improper relationship between parents and children causes children's hostility, which is projected on everyone and everything around them, thus causing basic anxiety. It is this anxiety that lays the groundwork for the emergence of neurosis.

Neurotic personality

As mentioned above, basic anxiety is a helpless painful experience, so individuals must formulate some behavioral strategies to minimize it as much as possible. Honey calls these behavioral strategies the manifestations of neurotic needs or neurotic personality, and she creatively classifies them into the following 10:

1, neurotic demand for love and praise: living is to get love and praise;

2. Ask your partner for help nervously: cling to a partner who can protect you from harm;

3. Nervous needs confined to one's narrow life circle: not to do anything to avoid failure;

4. Nervous power demand: worship power and despise the weak;

5. The neurotic need to exploit others: I am afraid that others will take advantage of him or her, but I think it is natural for me to benefit from others;

6. Nervous demand for social prestige: living is to gain recognition and prestige in the eyes of others;

7. Nervous demand for personality cult: to live is to be flattered and complimented by others;

8. Nervous demand for personal achievement: reckless pursuit of fame, wealth and social status;

9. Nervously demanding self-sufficiency and self-reliance: try to avoid taking responsibility for anyone, and don't want to be tired of anything and anyone;

10, the need for perfection: extremely sensitive to any criticism, and strive to be a perfect person.

In fact, for normal people, they also have the needs of getting love and praise, seeking help from their partners, and pursuing personal success. However, normal people can adjust and choose according to the actual situation, and will not be desperate to entangle in one and abandon others. However, neurotic patients strongly prefer certain needs and regard them as a way of life, at the cost of ignoring and discarding other needs. For neurosis patients, clinging to certain needs is to reduce or eliminate "basic anxiety", but because other needs that are also important to people are not met, they are more anxious. In order to cope with this anxiety, they seize this special need more strictly. Repeatedly, I can't extricate myself from the vicious circle. On the basis of dividing 10 kinds of neurotic personality manifestations or neurotic needs, honey further classifies them into three types: the activity mode of leaning towards people, the activity mode of opposing people and the activity mode of avoiding people.

People-oriented activity patterns include neurotic demand for love and praise, neurotic demand for help from partners and neurotic demand for being confined to one's narrow life circle. "This type of person needs the love, miss, expectation and appreciation of others, and hopes to be recognized, praised and appreciated by others. At the same time, he is also willing to be needed by others and become an important and indispensable person, especially for a special person. He also expects the help, protection and guidance of others. " The logic of this kind of person's life is: "If I obey, I won't be hurt."

The activity pattern of opposing people is just the opposite to that of favoring people, and it is composed of neurotic needs such as power, exploitation of others, social prestige, personality worship and personal achievement. Such people look at everything and relationships from the perspective of: "What can I get from it?" This kind of person intentionally or seems to intentionally think that all people are like this, so consider how to get more than others. "The logic of this kind of person's life is:" If I have power, no one can hurt me. "

The activity pattern of avoiding people includes the need of self-sufficiency and perfect neurosis. Such people "need to keep a certain emotional distance from others. More precisely, they consciously or unconsciously decided not to have emotional contact with others in any way, whether it is the way of love, the way of struggle, the way of cooperation or the way of competition. They have built a circle around themselves that no one can penetrate. " The logic of this kind of person's life is: "If I live alone, nothing can hurt me."

True self and ideal self

Everyone has a realistic self and an ideal self. As far as normal people are concerned, the two are organically related: the true self determines how individuals choose the ideal self, and the ideal self provides guidance and motivation for the development of the true self. But in patients with neurosis, the relationship between them is quite different. Honey pointed out that due to the improper treatment of parents, such as indifference, rejection, hostility and humiliation mentioned above, individuals have a distorted impression and negative evaluation of their true selves, and their true selves are degraded and despised; On the contrary, the ideal self is perfect and acceptable. The ideal self will never be an extension of the despicable true self, but an escape from the true self. In this way, one end is a worthless, obscene and dirty true self; At the other end, although beautiful, it is unrealistic and full of fantasy. Since there is a world of difference between the real self and the ideal self, neurotic patients will inevitably spend everything they have to point their activities at the ideal self. As a result, the illusory ideal self dominates everything and becomes a "tyrant" who gives orders. Honey called it "bossy necessity". She described this alienated state in detail: "Being this ideal self is everything ... He must be extremely honest, extremely generous, extremely considerate, extremely fair, extremely dignified, extremely brave and selfless; He must be a perfect lover, a perfect husband and a perfect teacher; He must be able to endure everything, love everyone, his parents, his wife and his country, or he must not love anything or anyone, and everything must have nothing to do with him. He must never feel hurt and always remain calm and collected. He must always be happy in life, or he must go beyond enjoyment and happiness, he must have self-control, he must control his feelings, he must be well informed, he must have superhuman understanding, and he must be able to foresee everything. He must be able to solve every problem of himself and others. He must always be able to deal with difficulties effectively, he must never feel tired and never get sick, he must always find a job, and he must complete tasks that can only be completed in two or three hours in one hour. "

Obviously, the more neurotic patients pursue their ideal self, the farther away they are from their true self, which makes them always fall into the feeling of failure, which leads to more serious diseases. In Honey's view, the job of psychotherapy is to help neurosis patients establish a practical connection between their real self and their ideal self, so that they can be freed from the "arbitrary necessity" and experience success and failure like ordinary people. She believes that the problems people encounter in interaction can also be solved in interaction.

Many people think that the new psychoanalytic school, which revises Freud's classic psychoanalytic theory, abandons instinctive theory and regards social factors as the decisive force of psychological development and change, is composed of Adler A, Honey and Fromm E. In fact, it is inaccurate to include Adler, because on the one hand, Adler did not receive systematic psychoanalytic training like Honey and Fromm, and only after he became interested in mental illness did he get to know Freud and discuss it together. But the two soon parted ways because of different views; On the other hand, Adler never considered himself a psychoanalyst. He explicitly called his research "individual psychology" to show the difference from psychoanalysis. Adler really criticized Freud's classical psychoanalysis, overemphasized human biological impulse and tried to shift his perspective to interpersonal relationships and cultural factors. However, Adler's above-mentioned work can only be regarded as an impact from outside the circle, and honey is the first person to challenge Freud from the inside of psychoanalysis and try to change his research direction. In this sense, she not only has a keen sense of smell for the spirit of the times, but also has extraordinary courage, courage and talent. Frankly speaking, honey's theory is not as strict as Freud's in structure, logical consistency and content, but in any case, it greatly broadens people's horizons and provides people with a new thinking dimension that conforms to the spirit of the times. It comes from the circle of psychoanalysis. In addition, what needs to be pointed out in particular is that Horney's research has laid a very solid foundation for Fromm to collect the results of new psychoanalysis and establish his ambitious theoretical system. Whether from Fromm's exposition of the relationship between man and society or his analysis of man's social character, we can find the powerful influence of honey.

If the classic psychoanalysis founded by Freud was conceived in the Victorian era, that is to say, it is a reflection of the spirit of the times in which Freud lived, then the spirit of the times on which the classic psychoanalysis was based began to change from the 1920s to 1930s, as the famous psychologist Murphy described: "After the 20s, psychologists began to add the phrase' in our culture' after each overview of human behavior, just like in the last 20s. Honeye (K), a personality psychologist and psychotherapist who has received strict and systematic training in classical psychoanalysis, is keenly aware of all this and tries to reflect it in academic research and treatment practice through his unremitting efforts. She said: "Although I keep the basic theory of Professor Freud, I think my research will go in a different direction from Freud in order to better understand it. "The so-called' different directions' here is to deny the prominent position of the' sex' factor, abandon the concepts of instinct and libido, and focus on how cultural factors affect people; How social conditions restrict psychology and behavior; And how social culture is related to neurosis. The most striking thing in Honey's research is her discussion of neurotic personality.

basic anxiety

Honey is convinced that neurosis is caused by inappropriate interpersonal relationships, and focuses on the relationship between children and parents, that is, parent-child relationship. She believes that the most basic need of children is to get a sense of security, which is provided by parents. If parents can really care and care for their children, their safety needs will be met and their body and mind will develop normally; On the contrary, if parents can't provide or even damage their children's sense of security, it will lead to neurosis.

In Honey's view, parents' behaviors that damage their children's sense of security mainly include indifference, rejection, hostility, ridicule, humiliation, eccentricity, and breaking promises. If parents always treat their children in one or more of the above ways, children will be hostile to their parents, but social culture does not allow it, so children must be suppressed. In this way, children will be placed in an unfortunate situation: on the one hand, they are hostile to their parents; On the other hand, we must restrain hostility and have to rely on them in order to survive. More unfortunately, this hostility caused by parents' improper upbringing will be generalized and projected on the world around them and everyone else. Children will think that everyone and everything around them are untrustworthy and dangerous. In this case, the child will inevitably experience a kind of "basic anxiety", that is, "a child's sense of isolation and helplessness in a hostile world." Honey said: "These factors I mentioned have produced a state of gestation, which has been unconsciously enhanced and penetrated into all aspects. It is a fertile ground for neurosis at any time. Because it plays a fundamental role in neurosis, I gave it a specific name: basic anxiety, which is inextricably intertwined with basic hostility. "

In short, the improper relationship between parents and children causes children's hostility, which is projected on everyone and everything around them, thus causing basic anxiety. It is this anxiety that lays the groundwork for the emergence of neurosis.

Neurotic personality

As mentioned above, basic anxiety is a helpless painful experience, so individuals must formulate some behavioral strategies to minimize it as much as possible. Honey calls these behavioral strategies the manifestations of neurotic needs or neurotic personality, and she creatively classifies them into the following 10:

1, neurotic demand for love and praise: living is to get love and praise;

2. Ask your partner for help nervously: cling to a partner who can protect you from harm;

3. Nervous needs confined to one's narrow life circle: not to do anything to avoid failure;

4. Nervous power demand: worship power and despise the weak;

5. The neurotic need to exploit others: I am afraid that others will take advantage of him or her, but I think it is natural for me to benefit from others;

6. Nervous demand for social prestige: living is to gain recognition and prestige in the eyes of others;

7. Nervous demand for personality cult: to live is to be flattered and complimented by others;

8. Nervous demand for personal achievement: reckless pursuit of fame, wealth and social status;

9. Nervously demanding self-sufficiency and self-reliance: try to avoid taking responsibility for anyone, and don't want to be tired of anything and anyone;

10, the need for perfection: extremely sensitive to any criticism, and strive to be a perfect person.

In fact, for normal people, they also have the needs of getting love and praise, seeking help from their partners, and pursuing personal success. However, normal people can adjust and choose according to the actual situation, and will not be desperate to entangle in one and abandon others. However, neurotic patients strongly prefer certain needs and regard them as a way of life, at the cost of ignoring and discarding other needs. For neurosis patients, clinging to certain needs is to reduce or eliminate "basic anxiety", but because other needs that are also important to people are not met, they are more anxious. In order to cope with this anxiety, they seize this special need more strictly. Repeatedly, I can't extricate myself from the vicious circle. On the basis of dividing 10 kinds of neurotic personality manifestations or neurotic needs, honey further classifies them into three types: the activity mode of leaning towards people, the activity mode of opposing people and the activity mode of avoiding people.

People-oriented activity patterns include neurotic demand for love and praise, neurotic demand for help from partners and neurotic demand for being confined to one's narrow life circle. "This type of person needs the love, miss, expectation and appreciation of others, and hopes to be recognized, praised and appreciated by others. At the same time, he is also willing to be needed by others and become an important and indispensable person, especially for a special person. He also expects the help, protection and guidance of others. " The logic of this kind of person's life is: "If I obey, I won't be hurt."

The activity pattern of opposing people is just the opposite to that of favoring people, and it is composed of neurotic needs such as power, exploitation of others, social prestige, personality worship and personal achievement. Such people look at everything and relationships from the perspective of: "What can I get from it?" This kind of person intentionally or seems to intentionally think that all people are like this, so consider how to get more than others. "The logic of this kind of person's life is:" If I have power, no one can hurt me. "

The activity pattern of avoiding people includes the need of self-sufficiency and perfect neurosis. Such people "need to keep a certain emotional distance from others. More precisely, they consciously or unconsciously decided not to have emotional contact with others in any way, whether it is the way of love, the way of struggle, the way of cooperation or the way of competition. They have built a circle around themselves that no one can penetrate. " The logic of this kind of person's life is: "If I live alone, nothing can hurt me."

True self and ideal self

Everyone has a realistic self and an ideal self. As far as normal people are concerned, the two are organically related: the true self determines how individuals choose the ideal self, and the ideal self provides guidance and motivation for the development of the true self. But in patients with neurosis, the relationship between them is quite different. Honey pointed out that due to the improper treatment of parents, such as indifference, rejection, hostility and humiliation mentioned above, individuals have a distorted impression and negative evaluation of their true selves, and their true selves are degraded and despised; On the contrary, the ideal self is perfect and acceptable. The ideal self will never be an extension of the despicable true self, but an escape from the true self. In this way, one end is a worthless, obscene and dirty true self; At the other end, although beautiful, it is unrealistic and full of fantasy. Since there is a world of difference between the real self and the ideal self, neurotic patients will inevitably spend everything they have to point their activities at the ideal self. As a result, the illusory ideal self dominates everything and becomes a "tyrant" who gives orders. Honey called it "bossy necessity". She described this alienated state in detail: "Being this ideal self is everything ... He must be extremely honest, extremely generous, extremely considerate, extremely fair, extremely dignified, extremely brave and selfless; He must be a perfect lover, a perfect husband and a perfect teacher; He must be able to endure everything, love everyone, his parents, his wife and his country, or he must not love anything or anyone, and everything must have nothing to do with him. He must never feel hurt and always remain calm and collected. He must always be happy in life, or he must go beyond enjoyment and happiness, he must have self-control, he must control his feelings, he must be well informed, he must have superhuman understanding, and he must be able to foresee everything. He must be able to solve every problem of himself and others. He must always be able to deal with difficulties effectively, he must never feel tired and never get sick, he must always find a job, and he must complete tasks that can only be completed in two or three hours in one hour. "

Obviously, the more neurotic patients pursue their ideal self, the farther away they are from their true self, which makes them always fall into the feeling of failure, which leads to more serious diseases. In Honey's view, the job of psychotherapy is to help neurosis patients establish a practical connection between their real self and their ideal self, so that they can be freed from the "arbitrary necessity" and experience success and failure like ordinary people. She believes that the problems people encounter in interaction can also be solved in interaction.

Many people think that the new psychoanalytic school, which revises Freud's classic psychoanalytic theory, abandons instinctive theory and regards social factors as the decisive force of psychological development and change, is composed of Adler A, Honey and Fromm E. In fact, it is inaccurate to include Adler, because on the one hand, Adler did not receive systematic psychoanalytic training like Honey and Fromm, and only after he became interested in mental illness did he get to know Freud and discuss it together. But the two soon parted ways because of different views; On the other hand, Adler never considered himself a psychoanalyst. He explicitly called his research "individual psychology" to show the difference from psychoanalysis. Adler really criticized Freud's classical psychoanalysis, overemphasized human biological impulse and tried to shift his perspective to interpersonal relationships and cultural factors. However, Adler's above-mentioned work can only be regarded as an impact from outside the circle, and honey is the first person to challenge Freud from the inside of psychoanalysis and try to change his research direction. In this sense, she not only has a keen sense of smell for the spirit of the times, but also has extraordinary courage, courage and talent. Frankly speaking, honey's theory is not as strict as Freud's in structure, logical consistency and content, but in any case, it greatly broadens people's horizons and provides people with a new thinking dimension that conforms to the spirit of the times. It comes from the circle of psychoanalysis. In addition, what needs to be pointed out in particular is that Horney's research has laid a very solid foundation for Fromm to collect the results of new psychoanalysis and establish his ambitious theoretical system. Whether from Fromm's exposition of the relationship between man and society or his analysis of man's social character, we can find the powerful influence of honey.