Horney’s relational model replaced Freud’s libido-stage theory with social-environmental determinants.

Evidence

The most significant sections of the book take a position opposed to Freud’s biologistic and instinctivist orientation (libido theory, Oedipus complex, death instinct, the basing of the psychology of women on anatomical differences) and opposed also to his mechanistic evolutionism (repetition compulsion, direct causation of mental dispositions by early childhood experiences) … By explaining character and human behaviour fundamentally on the basis of the concrete human relations in which a person has grown up and is living, and by dispensing once and for all with the assumption that there are fixed libido stages in human development, the book, which is written with great clarity, offers social psychology many promising signposts towards a better, more exact understanding of the psychological effects of social conditions. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1115

Categorization

• DEFINE: This crisply contrasts Horney’s neoanalytic position against the specific Freudian concepts it rejected (libido theory, Oedipus complex, repetition compulsion) — useful reference material for the neoanalytic revision of the 1930s.
• XREF: Directly relevant to the Fromm-Horkheimer-Adorno split over revisionist psychoanalysis traced throughout the book. — connects to: Horney’s cultural determinism slid into ignoring social distortion of instinctive structure; Fromm and Horney diverged over whether instinct or social conditions determine human behavior. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1119; Fromm’s early social psychology critiqued Freud’s purely libidinal account of authority — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 417 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Fromm and Horney diverged over whether instinct or social conditions determine human behavior. #corroborates (0.78) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1119
• Fromm’s early social psychology critiqued Freud’s purely libidinal account of authority #expands (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 417
• Horney’s cultural determinism slid into ignoring social distortion of instinctive structure #qualifies (0.72)
• Fromm replaced libido structure with Reich’s concept of character as adapted instinct #expands (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 615