Feminine Psychology
Often termed as a neo-Freudian, Karen Horney is considered a pioneer in the field of psychology, in which at one point she was convinced that the field of psychology itself was predominately androcentric. With hopes of changing the face of psychology − to something that related more to the social and cultural attitudes of women − it wasn’t long before she took a position against classical theorist Sigmund Freud. In her work, she writes extensively about womb envy, the antithesis of the classical Freudian concept of penis envy. Although this is really only the tip of the iceberg of the great contributions Horney ensued in personality theory, her dedication to the subject earned her the distinction of creating a separate branch of psychology: feminine psychology.
From Horney’s point of view, psychology did not devote enough attention to womanhood. In fact, she often characterized women with feelings of inferiority due to the overt and long-held displays of patriarchy. Women are not born with this state of mind, but are rather socialized to feel inadequate to men. Thus, Horney asserted that the basis of personality and development is not biological, and that social and cultural factors are likely to result from inhibited impulses. These assumptions by Horney were verified through her own personal experiences not only as a mother, but also as a clinical researcher. In some cases, Horney concurred, women were very resistant to their sexuality. She claimed that this was, again, due to women’s desire to compete with men in positions of power and success in the workplace.
Perhaps what earned Horney the most fame was her continuous opposition to Freudian theory and its disregard to the life course. Even though her response heeded great criticism, her basis of interpretation on the present factors of the human condition − from birth until the present − compared to Freud and his often infant-based theories, Horney appeared to be more interested in the function and the complexity and diversity of development. During that time, both Freud and Horney were interested in understanding neurotic trends of their patients and were in constant conflict regarding their beliefs. Whether or not their hypotheses and scientific work were correct, there is no doubt that feminine psychology has made great strides in our current understanding of personality theory.
Inasmuch as both researchers, Freud and Horney, disagreed, it is true that feminine psychology still has relevance to the field of psychology today. Feminine psychology and its orientation are highly applicable to today’s movements that work to include women in biomedical research. Interestingly, women have been denied participation in biomedical research. This movement, which stressed the importance of women’s health as a separate entity sees, like Karen Horney did, that women have not only psychological experiences that differ, but also many social and cultural factors that contribute to their health disparities. Based on this, we can also assume that male bias has also dominated the field of medicine equivocally.
