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Karen Horney (6 September 1885 4 December 1952) was a German psychoanalyst, she is often

classified as Neo-Freudian, also was a pioneer in the discipline of feminine psychiatry. Her theories

questioned some traditional Freudian views of phallocentric account of womens psychology, to

abandon Freuds theory of the unconscious and the infantile sexuality such as i n the Psychoanalytic

Social Theory related to how our personality is shaped and influenced by our personal experience

conditioned by our society and culture, and the Theory of neurosis where she explain that the

people who do not have their needs for love and affection satisfied during childhood are to develop

basic hostility as a consequence, will suffer from basic anxiety and she adopted three different

categories of relations to others: The first category is Compliance or moving toward people (trying to

find affection and approval),The second category is Aggression or moving against people(trying to

gain prestige and control over others), and the last category is Detachment or moving away from

people (trying to be independent and seek for perfection).

These protective devices may become unhealthy and the people feels compelled to rely on them

and employ a variety of interpersonal strategies they are called compulsions.

Also on the Theory of the self, she analyse the self" as of own being and full of pot ential. This

theory tried to explain that people are conscious of their "self" and that we have a concept of what

we want our self to be, it is called the ideal self where we feel what we should be but we are

not; the ideal self is used as a model to assist the real self in developing its potential and achieving

self-actualization. The real self is who and what we actually are. She tried to explain the differences

between their idealized self-image and their real self.

Honeys work also has inspired the feminists because of her rejection to some ideas of Freudian

phallocentric and her interest to study the causes and effects of sexual inequality. Karen Horney

disagrees with Freuds view of female psychology because she believe that the source of so much

female psychiatric disorders is located in the so much male-dominated cultural belief that men are

superior to women, where qualities or privileges are regarded as masculine.

Karen Horney wrote about The Problem of Feminine Masochism", she proved that cultures and

societies worldwide have encouraged women to be dependent on men for everything, from love,

prestige, wealth, care and protection. Also women since the point of view of the society, has to

appear as to be pleased and as pretty objects that gain value when they have a family.

Or on the theory of womb, where envy is a concept quite similar to the penis envy envisaged by

Freud, concept that she derided by calling it Masculine narcissism. Her theory is the opposite atthis concept and suggest that some men feel natural envy of the biological functions of women such

as in nurturing and sustaining life, whilst men are driven to be successful in life since is a way to

probe their ability to provide and succeed, also men may be envious of women as they fulfil their

position in society by simply 'being' and that they carry, nurture and bear children. She considered

this concept like a psychosocial tendency.

In conclusion Karen Horney was a pioneer in feminist psychoanalysis and insists that women are

indeed mens equals, also she considered that the social and cultural conditions, especially during

the childhood will have a powerful effect later on the personality; she studied and proposed theories

of neurotic personalities where she also appropriately suggested that is appropriate to the normaldevelopment.

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References

Sayers, Janet, 1991, Mothering Psychoanalysis, Penguin Books, England, pp. 85- 105. Horney, Karen, 1994, Self-Analysis, W.W. Norton & Company Ltd, New York, pp. 50-107.