Horney and Jewel

For my paper I decided to use Karen Horney’s Social Psychological Viewpoint on the “Search for Social Security” and compared it with the singer Jewel. I found that Jewel and Horney’s viewpoint went together well. Jewel is someone that has social security and I will give examples of how she got it and how she deals with society. I got my information from an article I read about Jewel talking about the new book she just wrote on herself. The book is called Chasing down the dawn; Jewel describes it as, “ the upward spiral in my life.”

Horney emphasized the individuals search for a sense of security in the world as the primary motivational force in personality. In attempting to establish a sense of security, each person develops a particular personality style for coping with the world. Jewels personality style for coping with the world is one of the rules she lives by: “To live a true to yourself life, to be honest and courageous and know that good things will follow out of that.

Horney assumed that the early relationship between parent and child was extremely important in determining personality in adulthood. Jewel had very good relationships with her parents, even when they divorced when she was only eight years old. She lived with her father for a while, who was a folk singer, in Alaska. They would perform together. Then she went and lived with her mother in California, where they moved into vans parked side by side to save money so Jewel could make music a priority. I think it helped her singing career a lot by the way her parents were so supportive.

There are three strategies for achieving social security. They are: Moving toward, against, and away from people. Moving toward people involves believing that if you go along with people and give them what they want, they will give you love and a sense of affection. Out of the three strategies Jewel moves toward people more. When fans and critics say they want to know the “real Jewel,” she considers it a good thing, because “That’s what they’re gonna get! I can’t be about trying to hide what’s not perfect about me.” It takes a lot of courage to remain true and authentic to who and what you are everyday. Jewel knows that, from the outside, celebrity makes life look easy. “One of the traps is they see me out of the awkward duckling phase. I wrote this book to let kids see how I developed my mind and my heart.

Moving against people involves a style of