Running head: HISTORICAL WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY - KAREN HORNEY

Historical Women in Psychology - Karen Horney Denny Dail PSY310 September 19, 2011 Ann Becher-Ingwalson

HISTORICAL WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY - KAREN HORNEY Abstract Karen Horney was German born in the late 1800s. Even though it was very hard and unpopular for women to become educated and leaders in their field, she more than accomplished this. Her work in neurosis went far beyond what Freud had originally thought and published. She was punished in a mans world for destroying the work of Freud, and today she is the mother of Neo

Freudianism. Her accomplishments went far beyond what anyone in her field had expected from her and she was one of the major influences in the Feminist Movement. Karen Horney is a woman who had one thing against her, that was being a woman and in the end she finished victoriously.

HISTORICAL WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY - KAREN HORNEY Historical Women in Psychology - Karen Horney

Personal Life Biography: Karen Horney was born Karen Danielson, September 16, 1885, in a small village called Blankenese, Germany (about 12 miles west of Hamburg, on the North Bank of the Elbe). She was born of a Dutch-Norwegian family who had a very Victorian-European mind set. Her father, Berndt Danielson, was a ships captain was a very strict authoritarian. She was very intelligent as a child and had dreams of greatness which her mother supported. While at home, she took care of her older brother, Berndt Jr., and eventually fell in love with him as her role as she saw it was one of husband and wife as she would clean up after him and took care of his meals and other wifely responsibilities. Her brother, when he found out her feelings towards him, pushed her away and wanted very little to do with her after that. Karen then fell into a deep depression, causing her to start focusing heavily on her studies as a coping mechanism that helped her out of her depression. As she studied, she developed desires to study medicine, which her father discouraged as tuition was very expensive and women were not considered employable in her times beyond that of being a teacher or educator. When she turned eighteen years of age, she decided to become a teacher in order to pay her own tuition into medical school, in Berlin. Hospitals were in need of female doctors, because and female patients were requiring that the hospitals employ female doctors to deal with their feminine needs, as the male doctors made some of the female patients uncomfortable when it came to examining female genitals. Hospitals were also hiring female doctors, as it was looked at as a feminine role as well, the part of a care giver and mid-wife. While Karen was studying medicine fell in love with a young Lawyer by the name of Oskar Horney and was married in 1909. Before graduating with her MD in 1911, Karen

HISTORICAL WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY - KAREN HORNEY

and Oskar had three children, all girls Brigette, Marianna and Renate. Oskar, like her father, was also a very stern authoritarian. Eventually she left Oskar in 1926, moving herself and her three daughters to Brooklyn, New York in the United States. She was finally divorced from Oskar in 1937 (Webster). Professional Life & Theory: In 1913, because of traumatic events surrounding her life, her mother, her father and her beloved brother Berndt, all died within two years of her children being born, Karen sought the help of psychoanalyst Karl Abraham. She was introduced to Abraham by classmate and friend, Karl Muller-Braunschweig, who was concerned for her mental well being as she started sinking into a deep depression. Karen and her classmate were very fascinated with the human mind and how it worked; as she sought help she became very fascinated with psychoanalysis. Karl Abraham was a disciple and close associate of Sigmund Freud, who famous for coining the term psychoanalysis (Webster). Karen soon started studying Freuds theories and found some of it very fascinating, like his work on the Ego, yet had problems with his sexualizing peoples problems with things like Penis Envy and Oedipus Complex. She became very interested in neurosis and she is said to have completed what Freud started concerning the subject. She defined neurosis as a neurotic is driven by these emotional forces that are involved in their lives. Also, Horney believes that Freudian's theory about sexuality and continuous compulsives is interfering with an individual, the family, and social factors where there is organization of values, and attitudes. Freud believes they are compulsive drives from nature, involving every human being. This cannot be valid according to Horney, if these "neuroses were an outgrowth of disturbed human relationships" (Inner Conflicts). She believes they are compulsive drives but become neurotic by a human

HISTORICAL WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY - KAREN HORNEY feeling isolated, helpless, afraid, and hostile. They represent ways of coping with their life despite these problems called "neurotic trends" (Muskingum). She also listed the needs of a neurotic as: 1. The desperate need for affection and acceptance. 2. They need to be involved in a love relationship and expect their partners to solve all of their problems. 3. They need to have power and control over others.

4. They have the need to manipulate others in order to not look foolish or fear of being used. 5. They have a need to be recognized and accepted by all, they are the ones that need to be popular and the center of attention be it positive or negative. 6. They need to have personal accomplishments and they need to be the leader or on top of everything. 7. They need to be independent refusing help from anyone. 8. They have the need to be perfectionists and fear failure or anyone knowing that they have made a mistake. Her theoretical approach to this is describing it towards people's personalities. The personality she gave is an example of children and how parents as well as other socializing factors influence their personality. For instance, a normal child goes through life having certain characteristics of themselves when relating experiences with school, hobbies, and home. However, when looking at a child that is neurotic the environmental factors isolates their true self. Also, older people can be described as neurotic, characterized by no self-worth, loss of decision making or interest, afraid or obsessive-compulsive, anxiety, and depressed. The goal of this analysis is to basically change the person's opinions and perception of life by seeking a person's potential of self-

HISTORICAL WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY - KAREN HORNEY

realization. This emphasizes that the neurotic should be aware of their environmental factors that surround them and their inner-self, knowing who they are. This means "striving toward a clearer and deeper experiencing" (Neurosis and Human Growth) with the direction of their lives. This analysis "cannot solve the ills of the world" (Self-Analysis) but it can explain the neurotic's problems and try to help them. Psychoanalysis therapy is "helping people toward their best possible further development" (Self-Analysis). Freud suggests that this therapy involves the neurotic developing love for the analyst in addition to seeking help. However, Horney feels this is "not prompted by love for the analyst" but is the patients fear of people and their way of coping with life. The patient would feel helpless otherwise. Freud suggests that in order for people to overcome their resistance they need to deny them. Horney suggests differently. She thinks "the strength of the resisting forces and the strength of the self to deal with them" (SelfAnalysis). Conclusion: Even though Karen Horney was born in a time when womens opinions were not popular, her research on neuroticism as distinguished her from others in her field such as Freud. Even though she differed with Freud on many levels concerning neurosis and human instincts, she admired his work concerning the construct of the Ego, Id and Super Ego. She was released from one of her jobs at a University in Chicago because of her direct indifferences towards Freud and some of his work that made women seem subservient or less than men. She was a pioneer in her time and she was one of the women who was a great force in the womens rights movement. Even though she died in 1952 her findings are still used today and very much alive.

HISTORICAL WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY - KAREN HORNEY References

Horney, Karen. Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc, 1950. Horney, Karen. Self-Analysis. New York: W.W Norton and Company, Inc, 1942. Langenderfer, G. (May 1999). Karen Horney. Retrieved from http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/horney.htm Websters.edu. (unknown). Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society. Retrieved from http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/horney2.html