Editing Neurosis (section)

===Horney's theory===
In her final book, ''[[Neurosis and Human Growth]]'', [[Karen Horney]] lays out a complete theory of the origin and [[Psychodynamics|dynamics]] of neurosis.<ref name="Horney_1991">{{cite book | vauthors = Horney K |title = [[Neurosis and Human Growth|Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization]] |date=1991 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. |location=New York |isbn=978-0-393-30775-7 |edition=Reissued with a new foreword}}</ref> In her theory, neurosis is a distorted way of looking at the world and at oneself, which is determined by compulsive needs rather than by a genuine interest in the world as it is. Horney proposes that neurosis is transmitted to a child from their early environment and that there are many ways in which this can occur:<ref name="Horney_1991" />{{Rp|18}}

{{Blockquote|When summarized, they all boil down to the fact that the people in the environment are too wrapped up in their own neuroses to be able to love the child, or even to conceive of him as the particular individual he is; their attitudes toward him are determined by their own neurotic needs and responses.|author=|title=|source=}}

The child's initial reality is then distorted by their parents' needs and pretenses. Growing up with neurotic caretakers, the child quickly becomes insecure and develops [[basic anxiety]]. To deal with this anxiety, the child's imagination creates an idealized [[self-image]]:<ref name="Horney_1991" />{{Rp|22}}

{{Blockquote|Each person builds up his personal idealized image from the materials of his own special experiences, his earlier fantasies, his particular needs, and also his given faculties. If it were not for the personal character of the image, he would not attain a feeling of identity and unity. He idealizes, to begin with, his particular "solution" of his basic conflict: compliance becomes goodness, love, saintliness; aggressiveness becomes strength, leadership, heroism, omnipotence; aloofness becomes wisdom, self-sufficiency, independence. What—according to his particular solution—appear as shortcomings or flaws are always dimmed out or retouched.|author=|title=|source=}}

Once they identify themselves with their idealized image, a number of effects follow. They will make claims on others and on life based on the prestige they feel entitled to because of their idealized self-image. They will impose a rigorous set of standards upon themselves in order to try to measure up to that image. They will cultivate pride, and with that will come the vulnerabilities associated with pride that lacks any foundation. Finally, they will despise themselves for all their limitations. [[Virtuous circle and vicious circle|Vicious circles]] will operate to strengthen all of these effects.

Eventually, as they grow to adulthood, a particular "solution" to all the inner conflicts and vulnerabilities will solidify. They will be either:

* expansive, displaying symptoms of [[narcissism]], [[Perfectionism (psychology)|perfectionism]], or vindictiveness.
* [[self-effacing]] and compulsively compliant, displaying symptoms of neediness or codependence.
* resigned, displaying [[Schizoid personality disorder|schizoid]] tendencies.

In Horney's view, mild anxiety disorders and full-blown [[personality disorder]]s all fall under her basic scheme of neurosis as variations in the degree of severity and in the individual dynamics. The opposite of neurosis is a condition Horney calls ''self-realization'', a state of being in which the person responds to the world with the full depth of their spontaneous feelings, rather than with anxiety-driven compulsion. Thus, the person grows to actualize their inborn potentialities. Horney compares this process to an acorn that grows and becomes a tree: the acorn has had the potential for a tree inside it all along.