The Opposer of Freud: Karen Horney

• Born December 16, 1885
• Died December 4, 1952, age 67
• Cause of death: Not listed

Karen Horney disagreed with much of Freud's theory, and is known as "The feminist psychologist." She also coined this term. Horney believed that "penis envy" did not exist, and simply only what males believed girls thought . According to anb.org, boys are troubled when they discover that girls do not also have a penis, and Freud believed that girls must also be just as bothered. Horney beleived that "penis envy" is only a male construct and "a product of 'a one-sidedness in our observations, due to their being made from the man's point of view."

Though she did not coin the term "womb envy", she did argue that since women's bodies bring the advantages of bearing new life, caring for a baby and nursing, then men have a reason to envy women.

Perhaps many may also say that "womb envy" is also a one-sided view, due to it being from a woman's standpoint. 

Karen Horney also disagreed with Freud's theory of neurosis. Her theory of neurosis states that it is not a serious mental illness, but is a normal part of life necessary to overcome conflicts. To outline this theory, she created a list of neurotic needs.





According to Horney, the neurotic needs are a way to cope with the stress of life when conflicts between people and the environment arise. There are 3 main movements os a neurotic person:

1. Moving towards people.
2. Moving against people.
3. Moving away from people.

 There are also 3 personality types  that dominates the other 2
1. The compliant type, which moves towards people.
2. The hostile type, which moves against people.
3. The detached type, which moves away from people.


Freud's theory, in contrast states that neurosis is a serious mental illness, characterized by severe anxiety and fear.

The history of the term neurosis is interesting. "Neurosis" was coined in 1769 by Scottish doctor William Cullen. The word is derived from the Greek word neuron  and the suffix - "osis," which means "abnormal" or "diseased."

Horney suffered from depression, and developed a childhood crush on her brother, which was not reciprocated. She also wondered why the care and affection given to her brother from their father was not the same for her because she was not treated as well as her brother. Perhaps Horney developed her theory of neurosis based on her experience with depression and rejection from her father. Number 1 of her neurotic needs  was need for affection and approval. Maybe this was stemming from the lack thereof from her father.

GORDON ALLPORT- The Trait Psychologist

• Born in November 11, 1897, Indiana
• Died  October 9,1967 
• Cause of death: Lung cancer

Gordon Allport is known as a trait psychologist, and appropriately so since he painstakingly found 4,500 words from a dictionary to describe a person. According to him, an individual's personality is made up of all the traits they have. 

He divided these traits into 3 levels. Cardinal trait, Central trait, and Secondary traits.

Cardinal traits dominate an individual, resulting in traits the person is known by. These are strong traits like narcism, kindness, lust, greed. These traits will direct most of that person's activities. We all have a friend with a cardinal trait. Maybe they are too rude, greedy, or egotistical. Cardinal traits are the traits we have that makes us stand out. Think of people like Lady Gaga, Hitler and Michael Jackson.


Central traits are not as dominating as cardinal traits. These are less obvious characteristics and they are prominent dispositions found in everyone, such as "caringness,""shyness," "honesty,"responsibleness," and "respectfulness." 


Secondary traits are only shown under certain conditions. For example, nervousness while delivering a speech and anxiousness while taking a test. Secondary traits are less central in an individual.


He is definately not as controversial as Freud, but naturally every psychologist will have their critics who disagree. We need critics. Ouellette's article "Notes for a Critical Personality Pyschology: Making Room under the Critical Psychology Umbrella," supports that belief. Ouellette stated that if advantage is taken of important research trends and recognizing conflicts, “We can prepare an agenda for a critical personality psychology that is responsive to pressing social justice concerns capable of working with  and for those who have been socially marginalized and neglected in research.”  If we pay attention to the conflicts in research, we must critique them and recognize their flaws. This way we can help to build and detract from theories  in order to improve them.


My only critique is that social deviants wouldn't fit into the 3 trait levels with ease, since they barely react and don't display many emotions.

 They would display many negative cardinal traits, but would be low on central traits and secondary traits. Alllports Trait theory seem to exclude social deviants. Sociopaths would display  many central traits such as callousness, prone to violent outbursts and show aggression nearly anywhere, not have the capacity to hold good relationships and would not show guilt. They deviate from Allport's three levels of traits. A high-functioning sociopath may fit easier into all 3 categories, as they are highly intelligent and more likely to succeed in the career path they choose.



One interesting fact is that Allport did not like Freud. Gordon told of his experience in an essay called Pattern and Growth in Personality. He went to meet psychiatrist Sigmund Freud in 1922 in Vienna, Austria. He told him the story of a little boy on the train who obsessively tried to remain clean during the ride and refused to sit where a dirty looking man had sat previously. His mother also seemed very domineering. Freud's response asking Allport if that little boy was him offended him, and caused him to believe that psychoanalysis dug too deep. He  also rejected Freud's Method of psychoanalyses. 

SIGMUND FRUED- Father of Psychoanalysis

SIGMUND FRUED- Father of Psychoanalysis

• Born May 6, 1856.
• Died September 23, 1939, aged 83.
• Cause of death: cancer of the mouth and jaw in which he suffered from for the last 20 years of his life. Some sources say drug overdose, which may have been physician assisted since he was in pain from the inoperable oral cancer.

Sigmund Frued was such an interesting, yet controversial Psychologist. He was a man ahead of his time, since he proposed unthinkable theories in the Victorian era that some may dare to think, but never utter. 

As discussed in Cushman's article, "The Self In America," the self is constantly changing with times, yet the "other" consistently remains the outcast. Freud, with his theories, shattered boundaries since he deviated from the thoughts of other psychologists and the thoughts of collective society. If we fail to accept theories because they deviate from our normal thinking pattern, then there is room for epistomoligical violence to form and flourish in our society. This is why we must keep an open mind to information until it is proven with great reason to be inaccurate or misleading.


Freud is known best for his psychoanalytic approaches and his Stage Theory of Psychosexual development, which caused much controversy, since during those times people avoided topics involving sex, and even suppressed their desires.

According to his theory, those who did not satisfy each stage would have conflicts as adults. The above chart illustrates this very well. Children who did not successfully fulfill the oral stage at 0-18 months would develop habits such as smoking and aggressive behavior as adults. Those who did not fulfill the Anal and Phallic stages also developed unhealthy behaviors according to Freud's theory.

Ironically, he was a chain smoker, which led to more than 30 cancer surgeries, and in 1923, surgeons removed a large part of his jaw. Freud never quit smoking.

Another controversial theory of Freud is the Oedipus Complex, which outraged people since according to this theory children develop sexual desires for their parents. Girls toward their fathers, while viewing their mother as the competition, and boys toward their mothers, while viewing their fathers as their competition.

Frued also has yet another controversial theory called "Penis Envy," which states that girls discover that the male anatomy is different from their's, and as a result develop the intense desire to also possess a penis.

This theory is enough to spark epistemological violence against women, since this information may be interpreted as women being inferior to men, and wanting the power of having a penis and so this may be one of the reasons why this theory remains controversial among modern theorists.

Freud's patients were wealthy women who, mostly, had been abused sexually by their fathers. Could this have influenced his Oedipus Complex and Penis Envy theories? It deviates from logical thinking that would predict that abused women may not develop penis envy or develop a sexual want for their fathers. It could be that Freud thought some of the abused women may have wanted a penis to gain the power and control their abusive fathers exercised above them.

Perhaps he thought they also desired ownership of a penis because, as Cushman's "Women and the Untamed Body" explains, in the Victorian era the uterus was the main cause of female maladies. Since the vagina is apart of the female body, and the entire reproductive tract was seen as the cause of all female crises, and is the opposite of a male body which was deemed endowed with strength and vigor, then it is possible to see why Freud may have drawn his conclusion.

Teo, T. (2010). What is epistemological violence in the empirical social sciences?. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(5), 295-303.

Cushman, P. (1996). Constructing the self, constructing America: A cultural history of psychotherapy. Da Capo Press. Chapter 4: Healing through Self Domination. (Excerpt pp. 102-116)