Psychological Theory of Karen Horney Evaluation - Research Paper Example

? of Paper Your Introduction Karen Horney is a female psychologist, who was born in Germany in the 19th century on the day of September 16th. The name of her parents was Clotilde and Berndt Danielson. Karen’s father was a captain in the ship and this gave her the golden opportunity of experiencing various countries and cultures. However, as her Father re- married, she got aloof from him and she became more close to her mother, as she craved for care, affection and attention from her. She had a step brother from her Father’s second marriage and she developed a crush on him. In the website (Lagenderfer 1999) writes that “At age nine, she developed a crush on her brother and he turned her away. This led to Horney's depression which would affect the rest of her life”. In the beginning of 20th century, her Father was abandoned by his wife. During this duration, Karen got a chance to work in a psychological clinic, where she got a chance to learn about psychoanalysis. In the beginning of 20th century she lost her husband and brother to a disease and this affected her deeply and prompted her to commit suicide. Anyhow, she with her daughters, moved to USA, where she developed psychological theories based on socio – cultural factors and its importance in personality development. In 1937, in New York City, She wrote the book “The Neurotic Personality of Our Time”. Her main subject was neuroses and its connection to cultural factors in life. As per (Khara) “Horney’s theory is perhaps the best theory of neurosis we have (Obsessive-compulsive disorder, being a type of neurosis”. Karen’s psychological Journey Karen developed likeness to psychology in United States in the middle of 20th century .During this time; she got acquainted with other intelligent personalities, who led her to explore her knowledge in psycho social subject. Karen moved into the subject of neurosis and it is s till renowned in psychological world. Her claim on neurosis is different from other psychologists, where she termed it as a coping mechanism and declared it as a humongous part of life. She viewed neurosis as a mechanism where a human being fights for name, attention, affection, money ,social prestige or freedom. Karen basically follows Sigmund Freud theory of psychology but had contrasting view regarding female psychology. Karen was negative to the concept of “Penis envy” and she claimed it was demeaning and inaccurate view upon women. Regardless, she favored on “Womb Envy” wherein a man would feel guilty for not having the capability to give birth to a child. As per (Cherry, 2005) “Karen Horney made significant contributions to humanism, self-psychology, psychoanalysis, and feminine psychology. Her refutation of Freud's theories about women generated more interest in the psychology of women”. She believed that men had inferiority complex because women are emotionally and psychological strong and flexible. Moreover, she also propagated that; human can be their own therapist, if they analyze their self deeply. One should enhance their personality from every dimension, so that less of psychological problems occur in their life at adverse situations. The Theory of Karen – The Psychoanalytical Social Theory Here, Karen proposes that, the social and cultural events of a person in their childhood have a strong impact on their personality later in life. Karen has written more about neurotic personalities and neuroses and has claimed that, such psychological developments are essential for a person’s enhancement in physical and mental terms. She has borrowed much of Sigmund’s theory to elaborate her view on psychology and neurology of a person. Sigmund like her put much emphasis on childhood trauma but Karen probe deep into this matter by looking closely into social factors. Here the psychosocial factor is borrowed from Sigmund but Karen dismissed the idea of Feminism in it. (Soylent Communications 2012)“Horney's work is now considered influential and non-controversial, but during the latter years of her career she was effective shunned from mainstream psychoanalysis for challenging Freud, which led to her founding of the American Institute for Psychoanalysis in 1941”. According to Karen (Horney pg.8) “The resistance which many psychiatrists as well as laymen feel towards orthodox psychoanalysis id due not only to emotional sources, as is assumed, but also to the debatable character of many theories”. Getting acquainted with Sigmund’s psychoanalytical theory she later proceeded to become a psychologist or psychiatrists. Karen claims that normal development of a child is strongly based on their social environment .Her neurotic theme follow largely that a child born in a happy and loving environment turns out be a cheerful child rather than being gloomy and depressed. According to her, childhood is a tender age in which many imprints are made in the mind of a person. Meaning of the Psychoanalytical Social Theory By psychosocial analytical theory Karen means that social and cultural points along with childhood experience formulate the personality of a human being .Basically, in the infancy and childhood stage, they need lot of care and attention and when they lack all these, they formulate a hostile attitude towards life and parents. The child who is not satisfied with their emotional need basically turn in to a person who is sensitive, negative and dull. Karen explains that, it is in childhood that the psychology of a human develops and they build a positive or negative attitude towards life .A hostile child has a life with lot of anxiety and eagerness. Horney in her psychological theory explains that, in childhood hostile atmosphere give rise to a person with negative mental attitude and they combat their anxiety by three means; Moving toward people – One who need approval and attention from people. Moving away from people – One who restrict their own life, need for power, need to exploit others, social recognition and ambition. Moving against people – The need for self – sufficiency and perfection. As per her theory, normal human beings are connected to these means while relating to people but neurotic people rigidly follow only one of these mode. Karen propagates that, neurotic people with compulsive behavior built up an intrapsychic conflict that generate self hatred or idealized self image. I) Karen’s theory when compared with Freud also give rise to three accounts as : a)Rigid attitude towards new ideas. b)It’s alien view towards feminism It’s unrealistic attitude towards biology and concept of pleasure. II) Impact of Culture: She also explains about the impact of culture on on young people as nowadays competition is high among people for education and job. This competition leads to hostility among people. III) Impact of Childhood Experience: She points out that neurotically conflict arise among people mainly because of trauma encountered during childhood years. The children who are deprived of care and affection adopt a rigid behavior which in future hampers the positive out -look of a person. According to ( Wagner, 2012) “Horney thought that basic anxiety brought about by insecurities in childhood was more fundamental in character development than conflicts between instincts and society or intrapsychic conflicts among the id, ego, and superego” IV) Intrapsychic conflicts: Here people have inner tension and as a result take up a self image of their own ideals and attempt to live a life which different from others. Some of these self images are: They claim prestigious entitles They create and maintain a false self image False pride. V) Feminine Psychology: Horney argued that anatomy is not a criteria on which the men and women psychology needs to be evaluated but of their social and cultural expectations. According to (All Psyche) “In many ways, Horney was well ahead of her time and although she died before the feminist movement took hold, she was perhaps the theorist who changed the way psychology looked at gender differences”. Conclusion Karen Horney was merely a house wife, who was raising her two daughters alone after her husband’s death. She later progressed to become a psychologist after her bitter experience with life and suicidal attempt. She got acquainted with Sigmund Freud’s psychological ideas and raised conflicting ideas related to it. She was a feminist and supported or fought for liberation for women. She questioned Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis and sexuality. She claimed that genetically the thinking perspective of men and women are different and they react differently to certain circumstances. I n her clinical life, Karen was more interested in neurons and neurotics. She identified many neurotic needs in people and if they are not met people can have anxiety. As per (Boeree, 2006)“Karen Horney had a couple more interesting ideas that should be mentioned. First, she criticized Freud's idea of penis envy. Although she conceded that it did occasionally occur in neurotic women, she felt strongly that it was not anywhere near to a universal”. She emphasized on child development in her theory of psychoanalysis, where the impact of social and cultural factors are taken into consideration. She believed that children who are neglected in childhood, progress to become a neurotic or a complicated personality, who are anxious. She also looked at neurosis from a different angle and interpreted origin of self -image and self -development her coping mechanism, interprets that behavior and personality of people comes from the social and cultural environment they live-in. Finally, it could be said that, Karen Horney has contributed richly to the world of Psychiatry. References Boeree, G. (2006). KAREN HORNEY . In http://webspace.ship.edu. Retrieved May 12, 2013, from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/horney.html Cherry, K. (2005). Karen Horney Biography . In http://psychology.about.com. Retrieved May 12, 2013, from http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/bio_karenhorney.htm Horney, K. (1939). New Ways of Psychoanalysis (p. 8). London: Routledge Langenderfer, G. (1999, May). Karen Horney. In www.muskingum.edu. Retrieved May 12, 2013, from http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/horney.htm Soylent Communications, . (2012). Karen Horney. In www.nndb.com. Retrieved May 13, 2013, from http://www.nndb.com/people/667/000271851/ khara, h. (2011, January 30). Karen Horney – Theory of Neurosis. In www.harpreetkhara.com. Retrieved May 13, 2013, from http://www.harpreetkhara.com/archives/8347 Wagner, J. (2012). Karen Horney’s Three Trends (Moving Towards, Against, Away From) and the Enneagram Styles. In www.enneagramspectrum.com. Retrieved May 12, 2013, from http://www.enneagramspectrum.com/184/karen-horneys-three-trends-moving-towards-against-away-from-and-the-enneagram-styles/ Read More