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Chapter 5: Problem 12

A terrorist blows up a building in a hated foreign country. How might Horney explain the terrorist's behavior?

Short Answer

Expert verified
Horney might interpret the terrorist's act as a 'moving against people' coping strategy resulting from basic anxiety, which involves hostility and aggression towards others as a form of manipulation for control and power. The act of terrorism could be a projection of their repressed anger and unresolved internal conflicts.

Step by step solution

01

Understand Horney's theory

Karen Horney was a german psychoanalyst who proposed a theory of neurosis. She believed that basic anxiety arises in individuals when their needs are not met during childhood. This basic anxiety can lead individuals to adopt one of three coping strategies: moving towards people (compliance), moving against people (aggression or hostility), and moving away from people (withdrawal).
02

Apply Horney's theory to the terrorist act

In the context of a terrorist act, the terrorist blows up a building in a foreign country they detest. Horney might explain this behavior as a manifestation of the 'moving against people' strategy. This coping mechanism involves hostility and aggression towards others and is often used as a means to gain control, power, or to manipulate situations.
03

Analyse the motives

The terrorist's hatred for the foreign country could be a displacement of their unresolved internal conflicts. The act of terrorism can be seen as an externalized projection of their internalized anger and anxiety. This extreme measure implies a high level of anxiety, which lead to the neurotic behavior.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Give an example from your own life, or from the life of someone you know well, to support Horney's view that "it is a long and hard lesson for anybody to learn that others can neither hurt nor establish self-esteem."

Give a real-life example of a person who becomes angry toward someone who is weak because this weakness is a threatening reminder of what the person most dislikes about himself or herself.

A professional athlete wins his first world championship. His satisfaction lasts for only a short time, however, and he feels that he "has to" win a second championship in order to be respected. How might Horney explain the athlete's behavior?

Give a real-life example to support Horney's argument that "Every person belonging to a minority group or to a less privileged group tends to use that status as a cover for inferiority feelings of various sources."

With regard to women, Horney argues that an organism biologically built for female functions cannot be ruled psychologically by a wish for masculine attributes. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
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