Basic Anxiety (Horney)

Synonyms

Basic conflict

Definition

The feelings of insecurity that arise early in childhood where children perceive that they are unloved or undervalued

Introduction

Psychoanalyst Karen Horney described the concept of “basic anxiety” or “basic conflict” in her 1945 book, Our Inner Conflicts. She defined basic anxiety as the feelings that arise in a child from being unloved, unvalued, or insecure. She wrote:

[Basic anxiety] …the feeling a child has of being isolated and helpless in a potentially hostile world. A wide range of adverse factors in the environment can produce this insecurity in a child: direct or indirect domination, indifference, erratic behavior, lack of respect for the child’s individual needs, lack of real guidance, disparaging attitudes, too much admiration or the absence of it, lack of reliable warmth, having too much or too little responsibility, over protection, isolation from other children, injustice, discrimination, unkept promises, hostile atmosphere, and so on...