Genesis Gutierrez

Dr. Gina Torto

PSYN 210 History of Psychology/Modern Perspectives
Term Paper
Freud vs. Horney
Abstract:
This article will provide knowledge on: prominent psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and
Karen Horney, while allowing a brief biography in hand with their particular theories.
Also, this paper will focus on Freud and Horneys contrasting views of personality
development based on their perspectives of childhood influences and gender.
Early Life Influences of Sigmund Freud:
Freud was born in 1856 in a region now considered Czech Republic. His father,
Jakob Freud, was a Jewish wool merchant. He was first of eight siblings from his
mother Amalie Nathansohn. It is important to note that Freud and his mother had a
strong and positive relationship, as she encouraged his intellectual abilities early on.
Freud continued to excel through his medical studies always a head of his class. He
would meet several influential individuals in his physiological research, like Ernst
Brcke, who greatly influenced Freuds views on materialistic-positivistic physiology
through observation of male eels and their reproductive systems. Later, Freud practiced
medicine at the Vienna General Hospital, where he met Theodor Meynert, and became
an expert in brain damage diagnosis. By spring of 1884, Freud followed into extensive

experimentation with cocaine the magical substance and would develop a lifelong
addiction to tobacco-nicotine. Furthermore, Freud developed a close camaraderie with
Josef Breuer and together they studied the case of Anna O., a woman with severe
hysteria. Breuer would label her treatment the cathartic method, which allowed
pathogenic ideas to be expressed consciously. Thus, both physicians published the
Studies of Hysteria, which would later influence his recognized theory of repression.
Freuds Prominent Theories:
Sigmund Freud is considered the founder of psychoanalysis because of his
comprehensive theories of personality based on the cognitive recognition of the
unconscious mind. Repression is the holding of traumatic memories in the unconscious
mind because pondering them consciously would cause too much anxiety. Freud theory
of repressed memories went along with his seduction theory. The seduction theory
suggested that psychological problems like hysteria or patients neuroses is a result of
repressed memories of sexual abuse in early childhood. Furthermore, Freud partly
abandons his seduction theory and analyzes his personal experience to develop a list of
psychosexual stages. These stages includes a childhood experiences according to their
erogenous zones that at each stage largely determine the childs personality. The
phallic stage is the most evaluated because it observes the gender differences and
manifests Freuds theory of the Oedipus complex. This theory stresses that children
sexually desire the parent of the opposite sex while making the distinction that girls
resent the lack of a penis and blame their mothers and transfer this resentment into love
for their fathers, who has the penis that she desires. In all, Freud emphasizes sexual
processes and how they affect the development of individuals.

Life and Influences of Karen Horney:

Horney was born Karen Danielsen in 1885 near Hamburg, Germany. Her father
Berndt Danielson was God-fearing fundamentalist who Horney and her siblings nick
named bible-thrower. Horney recalls his stern beliefs of women being inferior to men
and she disliked his frequent derogatory statements about her appearance and
intelligence. However, she enjoyed that he took her with him on long sea voyages,
which added adventure to her life. Also, Horney adored her mother Clotilde, who was
considered more open-minded and her older brother Berndt. Furthermore, Hoerney
completed her medical degree at the University of Berlin in 1913 and went on to do
psychoanalytical training at Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. There she was
psychoanalyzed by prominent Freudian analyst, Karl Abraham and Hans Sachs. During
her time at the Berlin, she became a distinguished psycho-social analyst and had a
private practice yet she became disturbed by the death of her brother and a difficult
divorce that lead to a depressive state where she even attempted suicide. Later in 1932
she accepted an invitation to work alongside Franz Alexander, another prominent
analyst, at the Chicago Institute of Psychoanalysis and two years later she was teaching
analysts at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. It was during this time of the
Depression that she found that her clients problems were about their welfare like, losing
jobs and not having money and analyzed this for her psychological theories.
Horneys Prominent Theories:
Horneys theories evolved out of a general disagreement with Freuds theories
for childhood development of psychological problems. She emphasizes interpersonal
relationships, most importantly between parent and child, and cultural setting as factors

of mental illness. She suggested two kinds of interpersonal relationships exist between
a child and parent. The ideal relationship involves love and consistency which would
satisfy the childs biological and safety needs. However, avoiding these needs would
mean the child experiences the basic evil and is likely to develop neurosis or a mental
disorder. Furthermore, Horney theorizes that this basic evil provokes a basic hostility in
the child that when repressed evolves into basic anxiety. Thus, the basic anxiety
adjustments patterns are: 1) moving towards people by becoming compliant to the hurt
2) moving against people by becoming hostile and hurting other people and 3) moving
away from people by becoming detached and withdrawing from the hurt. Horney states
that normal people use all three adjustment patterns accordingly while neurotics cope
with just one pattern and use it to deal with all of their life. All together, Horneys
theories and further developments were very different to the traditional sexualized
Freudian theories.
Freud and Horneys Contrasting Theories:
Horney believed that Freuds theory of unconscious sexual motivation and the
Oedipal complex were not relevant in these modern times and she rarely found
unconscious sexual conflicts to be the cause of her clients problem. Freuds theory of
repressed memories seems to be more of a self-fulfilling analysis, while Horneys theory
of basic anxiety focuses on the external and internal processes that affect the
development of an individual. Furthermore, she contended with Freuds concept of
penis envy and that it is what sets women back in their life development. Instead she
perceived that gender differences in personality are culturally determined and that
women often felt inferior to men because they are often culturally inferior. She even

claimed that men are prone to envy the female biology rather than the other way
around. In other words, when women seek cultural equality they may appear to wish to
be masculine simply because culture is a masculine product. In all, Horney criticizes
Freuds overemphasis on sex and the subconscious.
Freud and Horneys Agreements:
Horney agreed with Freud on the importance of early childhood experiences and
unconscious motivation in the therapeutic process. She also agreed on Freuds
contention that anatomy is destiny, which states that a number of major personality
characteristics are determined by ones gender. Within the varying distinctions of
theories there is a similarity where each analyst never quite understands each others
field of psychology. Horney was influential in the development of feminine psychology
and believed psychoanalysis is more appropriate and complimentary to males. While
Freud was mostly mystified by women yet he viewed women as more complicated than
men and just could not comprehend feminine psychology. In all, the influences of both
individuals were prominent to psychological analysis.

References
Hergenhahn, B. (2009). Psychoanalysis. In An introduction to the history of
psychology(7th ed.). Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Pub.
Huffman, K. (1991). Psychology in action(2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.
Narrative Psychology: Personality, Psychobiography and Psychology of the Life Story.
(n.d.). Retrieved December 15, 2014, from
http://web.lemoyne.edu/~hevern/narpsych/nr-pbiog.html