• PSYCHOLOGIST
• DISPROVED prevailing Freudian feminine theory, which was rooted in the belief that all women want to be men
• One of the MOST INFLUENTIAL psychologists of all time
• Earned her medical degree at the University of Berlin, becoming one of the first female doctors in Germany
• Based on her own experience treating patients, conducting clinical studies, and teaching at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute, she started questioning and eventually contradicting Freud's sexist theories
• Asserted that women did not want to be male, they simply desired the same level of independence and control over their own lives that men enjoyed
• CREATED the field of feminist psychology, as well as pioneered Neo-Freudian psychology
• Immigrated to the U.S. in 1932 to work at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, and then the New York Psychoanalytic Institute
• DISCOVERED that anxiety can be caused not only by biology, but by one's environment, arguing that society plays a pivotal role in an individual's self-worth
• This new theory of neurosis, which posited that people could eventually learn to manage their anxieties well enough not to require therapy, was in direct conflict with Freud's theories, and resulted in significant backlash from her peers
• Founded the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, the American Journal of Psychoanalysis, and the American Institute for Psychoanalysis

Photo by by Fredy Crevanna via Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: Ignotofsky, Rachel. Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2016. Print.
​Paris, Bernard J. “Horney, Karen.” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 483-484.

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American Institute for Psychoanalysis
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis
Karen Horney Clinic

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