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In Horney’s book, New Ways In Psychoanalysis she significantly widened the limitations of Sigmund Freud’s theories and prepared the theories to be obtainable to a wide-ranging public. Freud is considered the father of psychology and psychoanalysis. His theories are based on sexual instincts rather than biological. In Horney’s book she disagrees with Freud’s libido theory, views and emphasis of childhood, and female masochism. Horney emphasized the significance of communal, educational, and gender aspects in human maturity, disagreeing on Freud’s focus on sexual disagreement as the origin of neurosis. Horney says, “Sexual problems, although they may sometimes prevail in the symptomatic picture, are no longer considered to be in the dynamic center of neuroses. Sexual difficulties are the effect rather than the cause of the neurotic character structure” (Horney p.10). These will be the three points discussed in the paper. It is important to know that she did base her beliefs on Freudian theory. She believed that change and contributions were necessary in order to further psychoanalysis. She believed that Freud did not pay attention to social factors that he emphasized physiological factors. Horney did agree with Freud that childhood is important to understand, however, she thought he spent an inordinate amount of time on it. Horney thought it was more important to find what in the past was causing the problem in the present not the psychosexual stages concentrated by Freud. Freud believed that masochism was natural to the female existence where as Horney believed masochism originated from personality conflicts. Her contributions and involvement in psychosomatic theory led her to be the first therapist to confront Freud’s culture –bound analysis of women. She believed that Freud’s theories were made to explain the male’s view and completely ignore female’s view.
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