Karen Horney

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how Karen Horney was a leading reformer and theorist in the field of psychology and psychoanalysis and one of the first major proponents of feminine psychology. The paper looks at Horney's personal life and how she served as an inspiration to women psychologists everywhere. The paper explains that in recognizing that women had dreams of self-actualization, just like men, Karen Horney showed the world that women could also achieve and be fulfilled. The paper also discusses how her work has not received the full attention it deserves.

Outline:
Introduction
Birth and Early Childhood
Adolescence and Awakening
Student of Psychology
The Acceptance of Self-Actualization
Critiques of Horney's Ideas
Karen Horney and Women Psychologists
Summary
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Karen Horney was born Karen Clementine Theodore Danielsen on September 15, 1885 in a suburb of Hamburg, Germany. As befits a child who would one day devote her adult life to understanding some of the universal themes of humanity, Horney's parents were of varied background. Her father was a Norwegian sea captain, a widower with four teenaged children of his own, and naturalized citizen of the German Empire. His second wife, and Karen's mother, was a woman of Dutch-German noble extraction (O'Connell & Russo, 1990, p. 184). Her fifty-year-old father, and thirty-two-year-old mother had already had one child together, Karen's brother, Berndt - this child would remain their favorite (O'Connell & Russo, 1990, p. 184)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bohan, J. S. (Ed.). (1992). Seldom Seen, Rarely Heard: Women's Place in Psychology. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Buhle, M. J. (1998). Feminism and Its Discontents: A Century of Struggle with Psychoanalysis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Horney, K. (1968). Self-Analysis. New York: W. W. Norton.
• Horney, K. (1980). The Adolescent Diaries of Karen Horney. New York: Basic Books.
• Horney, K. (1999). 6 The Flight from Womanhood: The Masculinity-Complex in Women, as Viewed by Men and Women. In Female Sexuality: The Early Psychoanalytic Controversies, Grigg, R., Hecq, D., & Smith, C. (Eds.) (pp. 107-120). New York: Other Press.

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