Karen Horney (1885-1952) was the forerunner of the feminist movement in the field of psychoanalysis. She was the first psychotherapist to elaborate a psychological theory adapted to the biological characteristics of women, leaving aside man as the center of psychoanalysis. His essays in the publication Feminine Psychology (1967) unleashed a great controversy among the psychoanalysts of the time.
Due to its controversial nature, the ideas and contributions of Karen Horney were long abandoned by psychologists and psychiatrists of that time. However, they were used years later to promote gender equality during the rise of the feminist movement.
Horney was born and studied in Germany. He was one of the founding members of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute.
Years later, he would emigrate to the United States, where he formed the American Institute for Psychoanalysis and was one of the founding editors of The American Journal of Psychoanalysis . Karen Horney is considered one of the referents of psychoanalysis in the twentieth century.
Horney Biography
Karen Danielsen was born in the suburbs of Hamburg (Germany) on September 16, 1885. His father Berndt Wackels Danielsen, of Norwegian origin, was a ship captain and his mother Clotilde Van Ronzelen, known as Sonni, a German woman of a well-known family .
Berndt Wackels Danielsen remarried Clotilde Van Ronzelen, nineteen years his junior. Of this marriage, were born two children, being Karen the small one.
Berndt, the eldest son, was a nice and nice boy, four years older than Karen. In addition, Karen had four other brothers older than her, fruit of the previous relations of his father.
The future psychoanalyst inherited the intelligence And the curiosity of his mother, who always supported her in her studies.
It was not easy for a girl to become a doctor at the time. To this was added the obstacle of the religious beliefs of his father, a man who was always characterized by being quite severe.
Along with the support of his mother, he also had the support of his older brother, Berndt. Thanks to the help of the two of them, he began to prepare the entrance tests to the university.
In 1906 he entered the University of Freiburg to study what he had always wanted, medicine. This training would complete it in Berlin in the year 1911.
Before ending his career, in 1909, he married sociologist and economist Oskar Horney, from whom he would take the surname. With him he had three daughters, among them the actress and singer Brigitte Horney .
It was the German psychoanalyst Karl Abraham , One of the most outstanding students of Sigmund Freud , Who introduced Karen Horney in the exciting world of psychoanalysis. Karen underwent treatment with Abraham for Depressive episodes .
These were aggravated by the death of his father and his mother in 1910 and 1911 respectively. It was in the year of his mother's death that he began to attend lectures and lectures on psychoanalysis that Karl Abraham occasionally gave at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Society.
In 1920 he became one of the founding members of the Psychoanalytic Institute of Berlin, created by the same Society of Psychoanalysis of Berlin. Six years later she would divorce her husband, Oskar Horney.
In 1932 the anti-Semitic and Nazi current that sweeps Europe becomes increasingly important. On the other hand, his theories on a psychology adapted to the feminine traits, begin to awaken the suspicion of Sigmund Freud, that in the beginning supported it.
Then the psychotherapist decides to accept the proposal of the Hungarian Franz Alexander and emigrates to the United States to occupy the position of deputy director of a newly formed Psychoanalytic Institute of Chicago.
Two years later, he moved to New York to join the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.
His years at La Gran Manzana were very prolific at the professional level. There she taught courses on clinical method and collaborated as a voluntary psychiatrist at the United Jewish Aid Society, a charitable organization helping Jewish refugees.
It was in 1941 that Karen Horney founded her own organization of psychoanalysis with ideals different from those of existing societies; The American Institute of Psychoanalysis, where she was dean until the year of her death in 1952.
As stated in the Declaration of Principles Of this organization, the American Institute of Psychoanalysis seeks to avoid the rigidity of concepts and give more importance to ideas than to the sources from which they come.
In short, the objective of this body is to establish democracy in the scientific and academic community. Karen Horney died on December 4, 1952, at the age of 67, after a brief illness.
Evolution of theory
Horney's thinking is framed within neofreudism, a psychological and sociological current of the twentieth century.
Neo-Freudians extrapolate Sigmund Freud's theories to the reality surrounding the individual. They take into account aspects such as culture or gender. Based on its evolution, the theoretical work of Karen Horney can be divided into three distinct phases.
First phase: 1920-1930. Women's Psychology
Although the book Feminine Psychology Was published posthumously in 1967, the essays that collected took place between 1920 and 1930.
The ideas gathered in this work were very controversial when the psychoanalyst Karen Horney made them public for the first time.
The German psychotherapist who, until now, had been a great follower of Freudian theories, begins to refute some approaches to the doctrine of the father of psychoanalysis.
Sigmund Freud, in his theory of psychoanalysis, establishes the concept of "Envy of the penis" (Penis envy) during the Psychosexual development Of the girl, specifically in what is known as the phallic stage that is usually given among children of 3, 5 and 6 years.
This phenomenon results in the posterior Oedipus complex . According to Horney, according to this theory, the female clitoris is conceived as a penis too.
According to the German psychoanalyst, this theory of psychosexual development based on man and the later ones that followed the steps marked by Freud, are androcentric because they are made by men.
In contrast, the German psychoanalyst states that women have biological characteristics different from those of men. In this sense, develops the concept of envy of womb (womb envy)
Envy of the uterus relates the social subordination of women to the anxiety that men feel for not being able to perform certain biological functions intrinsic to women, as is the case of motherhood reflected in aspects such as childbirth or breastfeeding.
Here it is reflected how, although Karen Horney speaks of a biological element like the uterus, it relates it with cultural and social aspects like the domination at the social level of the man on the woman. The man needs to emphasize in other aspects at the social level, since at the biological level they can not surpass the woman.
The same Karen Horney explains this social superiority of the male over the female with the following phrase"men need to disparage women more than women to men"("men need to disparage women more than women need to disparage men").
Second phase: on the neurosis
In the mid-30's you can see an evolution in the thinking of Karen Horney.
This second stage is usually identified with the publication of his work The Neurotic Personality of Our Time In the year 1937. This work had a great importance in its day. It is also remarkable in these years the publication of New Ways in Psychoanalysis In the year 1939.
At this stage, Horney leaves aside the theories centered on women and goes on to study the psychological aspects that generate crisis in both sexes.
On the other hand, every time gives more preeminence to the cultural and sociological aspects on the biological characteristics, contrary to what establishes the approaches of the Freudian theory.
It must be remembered that in these years, Karen, becomes part of the "Cultural school" (Cultural school) together with other specialists as Erich Fromm , Harry Stack Sullivan, Clara Thompson and Abram Kardiner.
According to the psychoanalyst, it is social circumstances that provoke neuroses. These cultural and social factors, especially the family, impede the free development of the child. These aspects Anxiety in the small .
This concern was defined by Karen Horney as the fear of feeling lonely and helpless before a hostile world. This fear, instead of helping a better relationship with the other individuals in the child's environment, causes them to develop defensive behaviors, making social relationships more complicated.
All this theory is gathered in the first book, The neurotic personality of our time. This publication impelled the figure of Karen Horney among the circles of psychoanalysts.
The second most important book of this phase, New ways in Psychoanalysis , Is a critique of Freud's theory of psychoanalysis, since Horney thought that he did not offer solutions to some therapies with patients. This revision to the theories of the father of psychoanalysis made him resign before the Psychoanalytic Institute of New York.
The novel aspect offered by these two books regarding Freud's vision is the concept that every psychoanalyst has regarding time and its importance in the mind of the individual. Karen Horney focuses more on the present while Freud puts more emphasis on the past.
Although the past marks the individual's way of being and some of his traumas, the German psychoanalyst does not focus so much on recurring to the past in therapy, but focuses more on what the individual is now In the present, giving more importance to the current conflicts.
Third stage: stage of maturity
The psychoanalytic theory of Karen Horney was consolidated from the decade of the 40.
Horney continues his theory of neurosis. In this phase, it focuses on the reactions that the individual takes with respect to the others when he feels that fear to remain alone before the world in its relations with the others. According to the way of acting or the solution that is adopted to resolve the conflict, it carries some personality traits or others.
These strategies of defense of the individual develops them in two works; Our Inner Conflicts ( Our internal conflicts ), Published in 1945 and Neurosis and Human Growth ( Neurosis and human growth ) That came to light in the year 1950.
In these works, Karen Horney states that individuals can act in different ways in their interpersonal relationships, because of neurosis or that fear of helpless versions. They can get close to each other, move away or face each other. Based on this principle, it establishes three types of solutions that the individual adopts:
- Modest or self-effacing solution: This defense mechanism is based on the following reasoning: if I submit to others and do not seek my own success, no one can harm me. They deal with anxiety through strategies to get the approval and affection of others. They establish a relationship of dependence with those around them. As for beliefs, they are usually believers in a higher order as God who sets the course or the fate of life.
- Expansive solution: It is the opposite solution to the previous one. They need to achieve some kind of social success in order to cope with the anxiety . There are three subtypes of expansive strategy:
- Narcissistic . They are people who admire themselves and believe that no one can overcome them. Their concern or insecurity is manifested when they need others to corroborate their skills and good qualities. As for the beliefs of these individuals, they believe that if they persist in their dreams and focus on themselves, they will achieve their goals. When this does not happen, they enter into a kind of collapse that prevents them from facing reality.
- Perfectionist . These people develop values and forms of behavior that identify with being a good person. They believe themselves superior to others in this respect and believe that everyone should act like them. They believe that if they treat people as they think they should be treated, they will be treated equally. When an error calls into question its principles develop a situation of impotence and self-hatred.
- Arrogant . Individuals who fall under this subgroup apply the Law of the Strongest of Darwin. Usually, they are people who were treated unfairly during their childhood and in the present try to repair that damage. They try to achieve their achievements by manipulating others. They do not believe in traditional morals. If they collapse, they can begin to adopt submissive strategies.
- Resigned solution: People who adopt this strategy worship freedom and peace and are self-sufficient. They start from the reasoning that if they do not need anything from others or try to achieve success, they will not fail or have nothing to fear. If they do not expect anything, nothing can disappoint them.
In the book Neurosis and Human Growth , Karen Horney focuses on internal or intraphysical defenses, rather than interpersonal ones. In this sense it defines a new concept, the Pride system (System of pride), by which people conceal their feelings of weakness, idealizing their own image.
The scope of success is related to that idealized image, which individuals intend to update. This image does not bring comfort to the individual, but in most cases increases internal conflicts and contempt of one's identity.
References
- Karen Horney. Feminine Psychology . Essays from 1922 to 1935 (1967)
- Karen Horney. The Neurotic Personality of our Time (1937)
- Karen Horney. New ways in Psychoanalysis (1939)
- Karen Horney. Self-analysis (1942)
- Karen Horney. Our inner conflicts: a constructive theory of neurosis (1945)
- Karen Horney. Are you considering Psychoanalysis? (1946)
- Karen Horney. Neurosis and Human Growth: the struggle toward self-realization (1950).