Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, born near Hamburg, Germany. Raised by a strict Norwegian father and a more liberal Dutch mother, she lived out tensions in her youth that would provide many of the themes of her later work. While a medical student in Germany, she married a fellow student (1909) and they had three children. Her personal and emotional life was already under great strain by 1915, and she underwent Freudian analysis with Karl Abraham. She herself began to take on patients for analysis (1919) and became affiliated with the Berlin Psychoanalytic Clinic and Institute until 1932, when she was invited to the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Separated from her husband, feeling the Berlin psychoanalytic atmosphere too oppressive, and fearing the threat of Nazism, she went to Chicago.
Meanwhile, during the 1920s she had already begun to publish a series of papers that took issue with some of the major tenets of orthodox Freudianism, and she continued her often lonely fight, in particular to have women's distinctive psychosexual issues considered. During the 1930s she developed theories about the importance of sociocultural factors in human development, as opposed to purely intrapsychic ones - theories since incorporated into contemporary psychology but which at the time were considered heretical by many Freudians. After two years in Chicago (19324) she moved to New York City, where she built up a private practice while teaching at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and the New School for Social Research. She soon fell out with the orthodox Freudians there, and with Clara Thompson, Erich Fromm, and other prominent psychoanalysts founded the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (1941), which also established its own training institute and professional journal, the American Journal of Psychoanalysis, of which she served as an editor (194155). These institutions became the base of her influence, in turn communicated by her magnetic lectures and such books as Our Inner Conflicts (1945) and Neurosis and Human Growth (1950).
A difficult woman to get close to, usually reserved but occasionally insensitive to others, she remained at the centre of the storm in New York and international psychoanalytical circles, but in the years following her death she has been recognized as a major figure in the psychoanalytical movement.
Karen Horney [horn-eye], née Danielsen (September 16, 1885, – December 4, 1952) was a German Freudian psychoanalyst of Norwegian and Dutch descent. Her theories questioned some traditional Freudian views, particularly his theory of sexuality, as well as the instinct orientation of psychoanalysis and its genetic psychology.
Early life
Karen Horney was born Karen Danielsen on September 16, 1885 in Hamburg. She also had four elder half-siblings from her father's previous marriage
Horney's childhood was marked by misperceptions. Despite this, Karen always felt deprived of her father's affection -- instead becoming attached to her mother, who referred to Karen as her "little lamb."
From roughly the age of nine Horney changed her perspective on life, becoming ambitious and somewhat rebellious. It was here Horney suffered her first of several bouts of depression -- an issue that would plague her for the rest of her life.
Education and youth
In 1904 Horney's parents divorced, her mother vacating their residence with both children. Soon thereafter, in 1906, Horney entered medical school at the University of Freiburg -- despite the fact both parents were unsupportive of the idea, as was opinion within contemporary society at the time. The University of Freiburg was in fact one of the first institutions throughout Germany to enroll women in medical courses -- with higher education only becoming available to women in Germany in 1900. By 1908, Horney had transferred to the University of Göttingen, and would transfer once more to the University of Berlin before her graduation in 1913.
It was during her time as a medical student that she met Oskar Horney, the two marrying by 1909. The following year Horney gave birth to a daughter, Brigitte, who was to be the first of three daughters. By this time Horney had refined her interests and was keen to pursue study in the then pioneering pursuit of psychoanalysis. Horney's mother died in 1911, an event which put much strain on the young Karen. he was just as authoritarian and strict with his children as Horney's own father was with his. During these years, Horney was receptive to having her children raised in this atmosphere;
Career and works
In 1920 Horney took up a position within the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Berlin, where she was to lecture on psychoanalysis for several years. Karl Abraham, a correspondant of Sigmund Freud, regarded Karen Horney as an extensively gifted analyst and teacher of psychoanalysis.
By 1923, Oskar Horney's firm had become insolvent, with Oskar developing meningitis soon thereafter.
In 1926, Karen and her three daughters moved out of Oskar's house.
Horney quickly set about establishing herself. It was while living in Brooklyn that Horney developed and advanced her composite theories regarding neurosis and personality, based on experiences gained from working in psychotherapy. By 1941, Horney was Dean of the American Institute of Psychoanalysis, a training institute for those who were interested in Horney's own organization, the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis. Horney founded this organization after becoming dissatisfied with the generally strict, orthodox nature of the psychoanalytic community.
In the end, Horney's deviation from Freudian psychology led to her resigning from her post, and she soon took up teaching in the New York Medical College.
Theory of neurosis
Horney looked at neurosis in a different light from other psychoanalysts of the time. Horney believed neurosis to be a continuous process -- with neuroses commonly occurring at points in peoples lives.
Horney believed these assumptions to be less important, save for influences during childhood. Rather, she placed significant emphasis on parental indifference towards the child, believing that a child's perception of events, as opposed to the parent's intentions, is the key to understanding a person's neurosis.
From her experiences as a psychiatrist, Horney named ten patterns of neurotic needs. These ten needs are based upon things which she thought all humans require to succeed in life. Horney distorted these needs somewhat to correspond with what she believed were individuals' neuroses. A neurotic person could theoretically exhibit all of these needs, though in practice much fewer than the ten here need be present to constitute a person having a neurosis. The ten needs, as set out by Horney, (classified according to her so-called coping strategies) are as follows:
Moving Toward People
1. The need for affection and approval; The need for a partner;Moving Against People
3. The need to restrict life practices to within narrow borders; The need for power; The need to exploit others; The need for social recognition; The need for personal admiration; The need for personal achievement;Moving Away from People
9. The need for self sufficiency and independence; Lastly, the need for perfection;Upon investigating the ten needs further, Horney found she was able to condense them into three broad catagories:
Compliance
Needs one, two and three were assimilated into the "compliance" category. Under Horney's theory children facing difficulties with parents often use this strategy. Fear of helplessness and abandonment occurs -- phenomena Horney refers to as "basic anxiety". Those within the compliance category tend to exhibit a need for affection and approval on the part of their peers.
Aggression
Secondly, neurotic persons may employ "aggression", also called the "moving against people", or the "expansive" solution. Needs four, five, six, seven and eight comprise this category: Neurotic children or adults within this category often exhibit anger or basic hostility to those around them. That is, there is a need for power, a need for control and exploitation, and a maintenance of a facade of omnipotence. Manipulative qualities aside, under Horney's assertions the aggressive individual may also wish for social recognition, not necessarily in terms of limelight, but in terms of simply being known (perhaps feared) by subordinates and peers alike. In addition, the individual has needs for a degree of personal admiration by those within this person's social circle and, lastly, for raw personal achievement. On the other hand, aggressives only care about their wants and needs.
Withdrawal
Thirdly, and lastly, is "withdrawal". This category encompasses the final two needs, and overlaps with the "compliance" trait. As neither aggression nor compliance dispense with parental indifference, Horney recognized that children might simply solve the problem by becoming self sufficient. The stringent needs for perfection comprise the other half of this category;
Mature theory
Near the end of her career, Karen Horney summarized her ideas in Neurosis and Human Growth, her major work published in 1950. It is in this book that she summarizes her ideas regarding neurosis, clarifying her three neurotic "solutions" to the stresses of life. (Horney had previously focused on the psychiatric concept of narcissism in a book published in 1939, New Ways in Psychoanalysis). She believed that individuals in the neurotic categories of narcissism and resignation were much less susceptible to such relationships of co-dependency with an arrogant-vindictive neurotic.
As implied, while non-neurotic individuals may strive for these needs, neurotics exhibit a much deeper, more willful and concentrated desire to furfill said needs. Horney, together with fellow professional Alfred Adler, formed the Neo-Freudian discipline.
Neo-Freudism
While Horney acknowledged and agreed with Freud on many issues, she was also critical of him on several key beliefs. Freud's notion of "penis envy" in particular was subject to criticism by Horney. Horney accepted that penis envy might occur occasionally in neurotic women, but stated that "womb envy" occurs just as much in men: Horney felt that men were envious of a woman's ability to bear children.
Horney was bewildered by psychiatrists' tendency to place so much emphasis on the male sexual organ. Horney also reworked the Freudian Oedipal complex of the sexual elements, claiming that the clinging to one parent and jealousy of the other was simply the result of anxiety, caused by a disturbance in the parent-child relationship.
Despite these variances with the prevalent Freudian view, Horney strove to reformulate Freudian thought, presenting a holistic, humanistic view on individual psyche which placed much emphasis on cultural and social differences worldwide. To date, Horney is the only female psychiatrist to have her views and theorems analyzed and placed in textbooks regarding human personality.
Theory of the self
Following from her views on the individual psyche, Horney postulated that the self is in fact the core of one's own being and potential. Horney believed that if one has an accurate conception of oneself, then one is free to realize one's potential and achieve what one wishes, within reasonable boundaries. Thus, she believed that self-actualization is the healthy person's aim through life -- as opposed to the neurotic's clinging to a set of key needs.
Horney believed that we have two views of ourselves. The ideal self is the type of person we feel that we should be and is used as a model to assist us in developing our potential and achieving self-actualization (Engler 125). Since the neurotic person's self is split between an idealized self and a corresponding despised self, individuals may feel that they lack somehow -- that they are not living up to ideals. Horney referred to this phenomenon as the "tyranny of the shoulds" and the neurotic's hopeless "search for glory"..
Feminine psychology
Horney was also a pioneer in the discipline of feminine psychiatry. In her essay entitled "The Problem of Feminine Masochism" Horney felt she proved that cultures and societies worldwide encouraged woman to be dependent on men for their love, prestige, wealth, care and protection.
Women, according to Horney, traditionally gain value only through their children and the wider family. Most notably her work "The Problem of the Monogamous Ideal" was fixed upon marriage, as were six other of Horney's papers.
Horney believed that both men and women have a motive to be ingenious and productive. Women are able to satisfy this need not only normally and interiorly. To do this it pleases the need by becoming pregnant and giving birth, along with the external world. Men please this need only through external ways, which says that Horney proposed that the striking accomplishments of men in work or some other fields can be viewed as damages for their failure to tolerate children.
Horney developed her ideas to the extent that she released one of the first "self-help" books in 1946, entitled Are you considering psychoanalysis?.
Posthumous influences
Numerous websites containing and espousing her theories are in existence. While Horney has not received significant recognition amongst those within the psychiatric community, she nonetheless has followings within certain circles within the medical community and academia.
Karen Horney clinic
The Karen Horney clinic opened on May 6, 1955 in New York City, in honor of Horney's achievements in her field.
Works by Karen Horney
The following are all still in print:
Neurosis and Human Growth, Norton, New York, 1950. ISBN 0-393-00686-7 The Collected Works of Karen Horney (2 vols.), Norton, 1950. ISBN 1-199-36635-8 The Adolescent Diaries of Karen Horney, Basic Books, New York, 1980. ISBN 0-300-07527-8 The Unknown Karen Horney: Essays on Gender, Culture, and Psychoanalysis, ed.
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