Henry Horney's Interaction Theory

Horney (1950) believed that the self has a central inner force that is common to everyone but has a unique characteristic in each individual (DeRobertis, 2006). She referred this force as a source of growth (Smith, 2007). Each individual needs both love and frustration in order to grow healthily (DeRobertis, 2006). If the surroundings and people are not able to accept the individual, he/she becomes isolated from his/her real self and develops a basic anxiety (Smith, 2007). Each individual will develop strategies to deal with the environment. If the child develops anxiety due to the indifferent environment, strategies would become extreme and rigid, which leads to internal conflicts between the strategies (Smith, 2007). Thus, the individual would attempt to resolve the conflict by making one strategy predominate which causes harm to them. This paper would examine in further details the different interaction styles or could be referred as neurotic trends theorized by Horney (1950) and the application of this theory.
According to Horney, everyone has …show more content…
It could be noticed that my first interaction style that I adopted during my childhood days was the compliant type. My longing for attention and approval from others are expressed in my childhood days whereby I attempted to form friendships with others despite being rejected. I would cling onto others and would do anything to please others so that they would accept me. This could be due to the physical and verbal bullying that I experienced previously which made me feel inferior and have a low self-esteem. Thus, I would deal with this anxiety by trying to please others so that they would accept me. By them accepting me, I would feel more confident and