Karen Horney Essay

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Horney Jacqueline Garza Psy/310 May 2, 2012 Professor Apri Malkonian Karen Horney (1885-1952) One of the prominent female personality theorists from the first half of the twentieth century was Karen Danielson Horney. Karen Horney was born in Germany on September 16, 1885. Horney suffered most of her life with depression. Her upbringing was strict and discipline was harsh. She was very close with her older brother and as they grew older he distanced himself from her. This led to her experiencing deeper depression. Horney devoted herself to school and believed “if she couldn’t be pretty she would be smart” (Kendra Cherry, About.com Guide). She entered medical school in 1906 and although a follower of Sigmund Freud’s she disagreed with his ideas on female psychology. Horney added social factors to the basic ideas of Freud's theory. Horney's approach, called psychosocial analysis, put special emphasis on the emotional relations between parent and child early in the child's life. Karen Horney was considered a psychoanalytic theorist. She developed a theory of neurosis that included a need for power, the need for affection, the need for social prestige, and the need for independence. The ten needs, as per Horney, are summed up in three basic categories, the need to move toward others, the need to move away from others and the need to move against others. Horney’s work showed that these neurotic needs result in hostility and a need to control other people. These individuals are often described as difficult, domineering, and unkind. A well-balanced individual uses all three categories as strategies to function within the world around them depending on the influences around them. According to Horney, it is the overuse of one or more of these interpersonal styles that create neurosis. Neurotic people tend to utilize two or more of these ways of coping,
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