I

Nazi Concentration camps & Atomic bombs

September 16, 1885 – December 4, 1952

The Neurotic Personality of Our Time
Feminine Psychology

The Neurotic Personality of Our Time
 Freud’s Theory
 Mental Problems Arise From:
 Conflict between the id, ego and superego
 Fixation in Psychosocial Development

The Neurotic Personality of Our Time
 Karen’s Theory
 Mental Problems Arise From Environmental
Factors Specific to Culture and Time
 Parenting Practices
 Money, Food, Jobs, Providing for Family
 Neuroses Share Central Conflicts but are
Manifested Differently in Each Person

The Neurotic Personality of Our Time
 Attitudes of Anxious People
 Affection
 Evaluation of the Self
 Self-Assertion
 Aggression

The Neurotic Personality of Our Time
 Parent-Child Social Interaction
 Basic Needs
 Safety
 Biological
 Fulfilled Needs
 Healthy Adult
 Unfulfilled Needs
 Basic Evil
 Neurotic

The Neurotic Personality of Our Time
 Basic Evil
 Hostile or Indifferent Parents
 Basic Hostility in Child
 Shapes Child’s Worldview
 Repressed Hostility
 Situational or Character
 Basic Anxiety
 Constant
 Underlies Everything

The Neurotic Personality of Our Time
 Neurotic Adjustments to Basic Anxiety
 Moving Toward People
 Moving Against People
 Moving Away From People

Neurotic Adjustments to Basic Anxiety
 Moving Toward
 Affection
 Submissiveness
 Moving Against
 Power
 Moving Away
 Withdrawal
 Normal Adjustment Patterns
 Utilize all three

Feminine Psychology
 “Psychoanalysis is the creation of a male genius, and almost all of those who have developed his ideas have been men. It is only right and reasonable that they should evolve more easily a masculine psychology and understand more of the development of men than of women.”
(Horney, 1967, p. 15)

Feminine Psychology
 Goal: Objective View
 Freud’s Conclusions:
 Personality is determined by gender
 Childbirth is Women’s only Pleasure
 Women Envy Men

Feminine Psychology
 Horney’s Conclusions
 Personality is Determined by Culture
 Motherhood is Pleasurable
 Men Envy Women
 Women Are Not Biologically Inferior, But are Culturally Inferior
 Women Characterized as Masculine are
Simply Seeking Equality

Karen Horney’s Professional Struggles
 Road to Education
 Road to Theories of Neurosis
 Road to Fall-Out

Road to Education
 Family pressure not to attend Medical
School
 Society and Universities did not reward women for class work
 Ability & Personality eventually earned her respect from professors and colleagues

Road to Her Theories of Neurosis
 Looked at neurosis differently than others
 One’s effort to make existence tolerable
 Child perception Vs. Parent’s intentions

Road to Her Fall-Out
 Motivated by her discovery of a discrepancy in Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis
 Holistic concept of blockage in contrast to
Freud’s mechanistic notion of resistance
 Forced to resign

Research Data that Support Theories
 Questioning Previous Research
 Influence of Philosophy in her Research

Questioning Previous Research
 Men were only analyzing other men
 Freud believed his own theory was unsatisfactory and incomplete
 Philosophy and the Masculine Civilization

Influence of Philosophy in Her Research
 New Points of View by way of philosophy, in essays by Georg Simmel
 Whole Civilization is a Masculine
Civilization
 Psychology of women strictly from the point of view of men

Strengths of Horney’s Theories and Ideas
 Provided optimism
 Elaborated/Modified Freud's concepts
 Ego-ideal
 Defense mechanisms
 Created feminine complements to Freud's ideas
 Acknowledged social, cultural, and environmental factors play a role in development
 Focused more on the present and future rather than past experience

Weakness of Horney’s Theories and
Ideas
 All ideas are based on clinical observation
 Concept of Idealized self is a false picture of personality
 Neurotic needs is not a realistic way of dealing with anxiety

Her Influence
 Hypercompetitiveness
 Erik Erickson and “basic mistrust”
 Therapeutic Techniques
 Present situation
 Interpersonal
 Group therapy

Karen Horney
 Overcame Many Obstacles in Her Time
 Active Career
 Contended with Major Theories
 Overcame Personal Struggles

Karen Horney
 “After confronting Freud’s male-oriented psychology with her own so-called feminine psychology, she prepared the way for a philosophy, psychology, and psychoanalysis of whole people living and interacting with their changing environments” (Kelman, 1967, p.31)

References
 Endler, N. (1965). A behavioristic interpretation of the psychotherapy system of karen horney . The Canadian Psychologist (6a) , 188-201.
 Engler, Barbara (1999). Personality theories: an introduction (5th
Edition). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Hergenhahn, B.R., (2005). An introduction to the history of psychology (5th Edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson
Learning.
 Horney, K. (1937). The neurotic personality of our time. New York:
W.W. Norton & Company Inc.
 ---. (1939). New ways in psychoanalysis. New York: Norton.
 ---. (1967). Feminine Psychology (H. Kelman, Ed.). New York: W.W.
Norton & Company Inc.
 Horney, Karen (2006). In Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved June 1,
2006, from



Encyclopedia Britannica Premium Service: http://www.brittanica.com/eb/article?tocld=93613 .
 Schultz, P.D. Schultz, E. S., (2004). A History of Modern
Psychology ( 8th Edition)
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning