Freud Comparison Paper

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Freud Comparison Paper Sarah Lopez PSY 405 May 28, 2012 Karen Lundstrom Freud Comparison Paper Freud’s influence Karen Horney was driven and desired to pursue higher education most of her life. She started out in medical school but quickly became fascinated with mental diseases, the human mind and psychoanalysis. She continued to study and delve deeper into the theories of Freud and psychoanalysis, being completely fascinated and in awe of Freud’s theory. She was even able to find similarities between his theories and her own personal struggles which deepened the interest she had with Freud’s theories. As Horney continued studying Freud’s various theories she came across his theories such as penis envy and Oedipus complex. For the first time in her studying of Freud she found something she was not in agreement with. Her interest in his work took a hit once she came across these theories made to explain behavior via male dominated study. She believed Freud was not only leaving women out of his equations but also that he was suggesting women were justifiably envious of males’ power in society. She decided that Freud’s theories were inaccurate as men could also experience womb envy. Horney refused to believe people were instinctively driven and that behavior was derivative of repressed sexual needs or tendencies (Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society, 2011). Horney did still value Freud for his perceptive insights but overall she felt his observations were not entirely accurate and were lacking the emphasis needed on both genders and cultural and environmental influences (Feist & Feist, 2009). All in all Freud influence Karen Horney in the respect that his theories were both the flame that ignited her interest in psychology and the motivation to branch out and explore. Freud’s influence initially captured her to be
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