A behavioural interpretation of obsessive-compulsive neurosis

Criticism by family and friends is a powerful means of eliminating socially undesirable habits, but it is liable to fail if the action in question is subject to undelayed reinforcement. The agent then claims that he is under “compulsion” to act as he does. The effect of the criticism is to add a sympathetic component to the compulsive behaviour, and if the agent admits the justice of the criticism, the emotion associated with this sympathetic response is “guilt”. The appropriate treatment is to subject the compulsive habit to negative reinforcement. Successful treatment of a case of trichopilomania is described. The patient, a woman of 40, had been plucking out her eyebrows compulsively for a period of 31 years. She was instructed to arrest at its commencement each movement of her hand to her forehead for the purpose of plucking. Cure was essentially complete in ten days. Three months later the eyebrows were fully grown and, contrary to deductions from psychoanalytic theory, no substitute symptoms had developed. A prediction, drawn from the author's behavioural theory of perception, that an itch in the brows that had always preceded plucking would disappear with the extinction of the compulsive habit, was confirmed.     

The vicissitudes of affect in Horney's theory

Abstract

Karen Horney, a Neo-Freudian analyst who immigrated from Germany to the USA, undertook the difficult task of developing a theory that remained concrete psychology without resorting to biology or to metapsychological entelechies. Although her basic construct, as in Freud, is a conflict between nature and culture, nature for her is the naturally endowed real self, which the neurotic abandons bowing to cultural pressures. This process of desertion is teleological and based on imagination, and is also creative. It entails the pursuit of a god-like idealized image of the self shaped according to narrow and despoiled values. Being interpersonal, Horney's theory avoids third-person objectification which creates a false distance; it thus remains (inter)subjective. A theory of interpersonal affect, it is dramatic before being dynamic. It also abandons claims to universality as it does to the “objectivity” of the natural sciences. Horney's focus on alienation brings her close to Hegel and Marx, a neglected fact, and she pioneered feminist and self-help theories. The difficulty in reading Horney is not her abstruseness, since her theory refuses technicism. It resides rather in that resistance created by what Althusser called interpellation: one feels her finger pointed at oneself as one reads.     

An existential interpretation of success neurosis

The fear of success is typically interpreted as a neurosis in which the fear of change plays a central role. In spite of agreeing with the existence of this syndrome in clinical practice. this author holds that a similar ambivalence about change lurks within ourselves as well. We are especially like patients in that, in spite of their often unique conflicts, they also run away, like us, from true success. In defining the latter, the author interprets it as synonymous with living an ethical life filled with reverence and respect for all.Grateful acknowledgement is made to Stephen Getsinger, Ph.D., for having read and made numerous cogent remarks on this paper.     

Interactional value theory: An interpretation

Summary The imperatives of organization, technology, and planning operate similarly in both capitalist and Marxist systems. Differences in behavioural outputs (such as organizational productivity, industrial relations behaviour, or the outcomes of different health services systems) can be explained by adopting a framework of an interactional value theory which accepts convergence of different value systems and points out and analyzes differences in outputs in light of interactions between available climatic techniques and preferred values. The interactional approach links together ethical theory and various issues in social philosophy, especially in the context of the resolution of conflict among values. The dynamics of economic and social change stem from differing values held by key actors in society - government, business and the public. Values are not categorical but integrative, and values held by various parties converge. Further research should be focussed to clarify value-beliefs of government, business and other key players in identifying the interactional characteristics of public policy issues.     

On the relationship between Karen Horney's tripartite neurotic type theory and personality disorder features

[Horney, 1945] and [Horney, 1950] interpersonal theory [Horney, K. (1945). Our inner conflicts. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.; Horney, K. (1950). Neurosis and human growth. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.] postulated that individuals could move toward, move against, and move away from others as manifestations of their character development. In the present studies, it was hypothesized that Horney's tripartite theory might be useful in the elucidation of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders personality disorder features. In the first study, college students (n=198) completed the Coolidge Axis II Inventory [CATI; Coolidge, F. L. (1999), Coolidge Assessment Battery Manual. Port Huron, MI: Sigma Assessment Systems and Coolidge, F. L., & Merwin, M. M. (1992). Reliability and viability of the Coolidge Axis II Inventory: a new inventory for the assessment of personality disorders. Journal of Personality Assessment, 59, 223–238] and Cohen's 1967 35-item test [Cohen, J. B. (1967). An interpersonal orientation to the study of consumer behaviour. Journal of Marketing Research, 4, 270–278] of Horney's three types: Compliant, Aggressive, and Detached. In the second study, another group of college students (n=881) completed the CATI and Coolidge's 57-item test of Horney's three types. Results showed that both scales were reliable, generally similar, and numerous predicted correlational relationships were found. The usefulness of Horney's constructs in the understanding of personality disorders was discussed.