Feminine Psychology (Norton Library

by Karen Horney

As a psychoanalytic pioneer, Karen Horney questioned some of Freud's formulations of psychosexual development, particularly in relation to women. In this collection of papers, many previously unavailable in English, she brings to the subject of femininity her acute clinical observations and a rigorous testing of both her own hypotheses and those formulated by Freud. The topics she discusses include frigidity, the problem of the monogamous ideal, maternal conflicts, the distrust between the sexes, feminine masochism, and the neurotic need for love. Throughout the book, Dr. Horney draws on her experience as a therapist and at the same time consistently evaluates psychological factors within the context of cultural forces.

Genres: Psychology, Feminism, Nonfiction, Psychoanalysis, Womens, Gender, Self Help

270 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Karen Horney was a German psychoanalyst. Her theories questioned some traditional Freudian views, particularly his theory of sexuality, as well as the instinct orientation of psychoanalysis and its genetic psychology. As such, she is often classified as Neo-Freudian.

Reviews

[Miss Ravi · Rating 3 out of 5]

امروز داشتم برای کارم یه متنی ترجمه می‌کردم که می‌گفت پدر‌و‌مادر قبل از این‌که بذارن بچه یه انیمیشن رو ببینه باید به چه چیزهایی توجه کنن و بعد از دیدنش هم چه سؤالایی ازش بپرسن. مثلاً برای نسخه جدید شیر شاه باید از بچه درباره خشونتش سؤال کنن که اگه از جاییش اذیت شده، ابراز کنه. اون‌وقت تو این کتاب، کارن هورنای مثال‌هایی زده از آدمایی که به‌شدت از نظر روانی آسیب دیدن چون در بچگی تجربه‌های هولناکی داشتن. مثلاً بچه‌ای که شاهد زایمان طبیعی مادرش بوده یا پدر‌و‌مادرش رو حین رابطه جنسی دیده. من خیلی کم دیدم، شاید به‌ندرت که پدرومادری تلاش کنن تا بفهمن بچه در یه لحظه خاص و یا در یه شرایط غیرمعمول در حال تجربه چه حسیه و درک کنن رفتاری که برای ما بزرگسال‌ها عادیه برای اون می‌تونه واقعاً وحشتناک باشه. منظورم هم این نیست که باید بچه رو ایزوله کرد و از مسیر طبیعی رشد دور نگه داشت. ولی مسیر طبیعی هم این نیست که در معرض هر تجربه‌ای قرار بگیرن. خیلی از تجربه‌های معمول برای ما، تو روان کودک به‌شکل دیگه‌ای ثبت می‌شن. عمیق و ترسناک. توجیه والدین هم اینه که بچه حالیش نمی‌شه و نمی‌فهمه. می‌دونم تا همیشه باید واسه بی‌پناهی بچه‌ها غصه‌بخورم.
کارن هورنای، بعضی از نظریات فروید رو به چالش می‌کشه تا بگه که نه اتفاقاً زن‌ها این‌طوری که شما تصور کردید، نیستند. بتی فریدان هم تو کتاب رازوری زنانه به این مسئله اشاره کرده بود که نظریه فروید درباره زن‌ها به ضررشون تموم شده و نگاه همه به زن، حتی اساتید دانشگاه و مربیان آموزشی هم تحت‌تأثیر قرار گرفته و همه به چشم جنس ضعیف بهش نگاه می‌کردن. البته در بعضی موارد هورنای به نتیجه مشخصی نمی‌رسه و این شاید بهتر باشه از این‌که چشم‌بسته نظریه بده. فقط دلایل خودش رو در رد نظریه می‌گه که گاهی هم حتی براساس ساختار نظریه فروید منطقی به‌نظر می‌رسه. این کتاب برای من از نیمه‌ی دوم جذاب‌تر شد، چون به موضوعاتی پرداخته بود که هم جنبه کاربردی‌تری داشت و هم در گذشته برای خودم سؤال شده بود.

*ترجمه هم چندان خوب نبود.

[Gypsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

از این کتاب که مجموعه مقالاتِ کارن هورنایه، سال‌های زیادی می‌گذره. بنابراین خیلی چیزهاش به‌نظرم توی جوامع الان دیگه مطرح نمی‌شن و صدق نمی‌کنن و با خوندنش آدم متعجب می‌شه و پیشرفت بشر به چشمش میاد. اینکه چرا روانکاویِ جدید به‌سمت اگزیستانسیالیسم و لوگوتراپی رفت مثلاً، با خوندن این کتاب تا حد زیادی مشخص می‌شه چرا. روانکاوی و حتی نوفرویدی‌ها و یونگی‌ها دیگه نتونستن یه چیزهایی رو جواب بدن. رویکرد آدلر به نسبت منصفانه‌تر بوده و کم‌کم نیروی سوم روانشناسی به وجود اومده.

اما از طرفی یه سری چیزها هرچقدر هم بشر پیشرفت کنه، عوض نمی‌شه. این کتاب هم یه چیزهایی علیه زنان داره، هم به نفع زنان. ولی روی هم بذاریمش نگاه آسیب‌شناسانه و بالینیِ کاملی داره که خیلی هم بستگی به رویکرد مخاطب داره. ینی یکی مثل من که نسبت به روانکاوی هم مثبت فکر می‌کنه بازم یه جاهاییش ممکنه گارد بگیره یا یه مشکلی که من با این‌ بخش روانشناسی دارم اینه که واقعاً دیگه خیلی سلیقه‌ای شده. همون‌طور که روانکاویِ فروید خیلی فرویدی بود، نظرات هورنای هم خیلی هورنایی‌ان. ینی اگه یکی مثل هورنای فکر کنه، قبول می‌کنه وگرنه به‌نظرش منطقی و علمی نیست حتی.

از صفحات جالبش هم برا خودم عکس گرفتم، دیگه اینجا چیزی نمی‌گم. :دی

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Taught me a lot about myself even as I snickered about her last name the whole time, especially during the many sections in which she discusses sex.

[Star Moonsun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its unfortunate many people have decided Karen Horney's name is religated to 3rd grade mockery when in fact, her surname is pronounced Horn-eye. Oh dear! How can these people give an honest review if they can't percieve a surname correctly? Meanwhile, Karen's work is wonderful.

[Mojgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

این کتاب فوق العاده است فقط خوندنش سخت و زمان گیره مخصوصن اگه با اصطلاحات روانشناسی خوب آشنا نباشید مجبورید هی برگردید عقب تا منظور نویسنده رو درک کنید فصل های مربور به سرکوبب زنانگی و ترس از اختگی خیلی خوشم اومد کلن این زن معرکه است خیلی از کتاباش خوشم میاد

[Jaret Ferratusco · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In our culture, the most important neurotic conflict is between a compulsive and inconsiderate desire to be the first under all circumstances and the simultaneous need to be loved by everybody.”

A posthumous 1967 collection of Karen Horney’s essays and lectures in the budding days of psychoanalysis. As a contemporary of Freud, who indeed shared the stage with him during lectures and debates, Karen Horney takes a different view of Freud’s outlook, whose observations on women were, as she points out, decidedly male-oriented and also limited to a specific understanding of German and Austrian societies that certainly could not speak for all people. Karen Horney left Europe for the USA around the mid-1930s, one of hundreds of thousands who managed to escape the black cloud of Hitler’s rise to power before the terror of WWII and the Holocaust.

Much of this work was intriguing to read in the critical view of the wilderness of human action and emotion. But I find some of it almost impossibly dated. However, as pointed out in the essays themselves (most of which were written between 1930 and 1936), psychoanalysis was a burgeoning field of psychology. And like any science in perpetuity, it is a continuing study meant to be updated, not just occasionally but constantly. Of particular sourness is a seemingly repeated idea that homosexuality is perhaps a front of many kinds, often referred to as an abnormal schism that denial of the true self has managed to splinter off from the neurotic brain. It’s hard to read things like this. Still, it’s not without educational value — it’s essential to understand how psychology and society move in waves, for there can never be a more comprehensive understanding of a thing unless people are misunderstood about it just enough to be challenged further. The more misunderstood something is, the more we are provoked into dissecting its nature.

Society must evolve. Adapt to change. Seek joy in evolution. Challenge the mind. Find the answers.

Read more books.

[Uğur · Rating 5 out of 5]

The feeling that I am in the wrong place at the wrong time often surrounds my thoughts. I am experiencing one of these attacks at Karen Horney readings. I would like to talk to him a little, even on my feet, ask questions and listen to the sentences that are formed in that amazing consciousness and put into language. At least to be able to listen to him even from the back row at a symposium...

Some thinkers come across you somewhere in an unrelated book, even if they are not mentioned by name, even if they are not cited. "He mentioned it." you say. Karen Horney is one of those names. It is a tremendous feeling to constantly come across Horney's footprints in all the books that I have used while continuing my theoretical studies.

Horney, who devotes the essence of her work to the psychological and sociological reconstruction of women, has a neo-freudian view centered on the concept of anxiety. Focusing especially on women's anxiety-oriented avoidance, defenses, orientation and manipulation, the book reveals that, in particular, women position themselves as leftovers from men and do this without even realizing it. While this is the case, our author has very nicely stated that the psychological analysis of women is also handled by the male perspective, and that there is a certain deviation in interpreting it.

By taking an anxiety-oriented approach, he also addressed the masculinity of the social way of life and the concerns that women experience under this way of life in the second and third parts, and carried out the deconstruction of many concepts from religion to the state, culture to the family. Especially on the basis of these concepts, it is a very accurate approach that he has addressed common components such as violence and transferred his thoughts over them. Of course, Horney does not neglect to put a new one in its place while dismantling the building. In particular, he refers to the fact that the existing system needs to change in order for the childhood period to be well spent in every respect.

By considering the spiritual structure of a woman both with the dynamics of anxiety within the system and with her nature outside the system, he draws us not a utopia, but a way to rebuild. Well, let me explain to you with small examples what are the dynamics of anxiety in this system. For example, "where have you been so far?"it is a learned inner-system anxiety and stress dynamic at the points where a woman who asks unwittingly centers a man, denies herself, is a person trapped in the house, is waiting, behaves according to a man's pleasure, classifies a woman as a leftover from a man. At this point, our author has taken the phenomenon of women into consideration by going both inside and outside the system.

If you're not mistaken, this was Horney's last book. It can be both a good final book and a good beginning for psychology readers.

[Kaplumbağa Felsefecisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freud'un kuramlarının kadın takipçisi Karen Horney, tüm psikanalitik yaklaşımların ve psikoloji kitaplarının erkekler tarafından, erkek psikolojisi odaklı yazılmasının bu ataerki sistem içinde yapılan en büyük yanlış olduğunu savunur ve bu kitap bu savununun sonucudur denilebilir. Bilinçdışı yaklaşımlarımızın kaynağının anlatımlarıyla başlayan metin tanıdığımız ve aslında tanımadığımız kadınlara ulaşır. Kitap okunmadan evvel içindekiler sayfasına göz atılmalıdır. Oldukça derin bir sunu yer alır karşımızda çünkü...

[Ralitsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very enticingly human book!
One of the best books I have ever read about the psychology of women, men, relations and human life to its core. I purely love its scientifically backed up writings. The facts and proofs it gives, show the reality of the most hidden human perspectives. It is worth the time to embark on. The knowledge inside is astounding!

[Ellen Mcgrath · Rating 3 out of 5]

oh dear...an unfortunate name for the author but oh so informative; making me face certain demons, generally ruining my week but I expect ultimate good outcomes

[Arnau Bertran Manyé]

It is not unprecedented that, Horney’s essays might, at some times, not reflect contemporary issues that revolve around the female psyche. However, her rational and effective scientific method did surprise me in some of the cases she described with her patients. Many of her insights can still be seen in today’s present society, which I found very interesting and compelling when discovering behavioral patterns of not only myself, but my mother and sister per se.

I selected this book to better understand the psychology of the female sex, yet, I must say that it disappointed me in the fact that most cases were evidently niche, and would say that this book fails to effectively describe the way women are coiled. It is true she sheds light and dismantles on many poor scientific arguments by male-oriented scientists like Freud during her analysis, but, there seems to be a constant battle between her findings and the inability to ‘generalize.’ The aspects in which Horney specializes and examines, from my point of view, are rare and not at all ubiquitous.

[Mir]

Kitap yazarın denemelerinin bir derlemesi ve sanırım oldukça eski çalışmalarından oluşuyor. Oldukça ufuk açıcı olmakla beraber Horney bir psikiyatrist olduğu için ve psikiyatrist çevrelere hitaben açıkladığı görüşleri okuduğumuz için sanırım yaptığı tespitlerle beraber bir çözüm önermiyor ya da yol göstermiyor. Tabii ki böyle bir zorunluluğu da yok. Ancak kitap insanda belli belirsiz şöyle bir his bırakıyor: Ben bu nevrotik kadın gruplarının ne kadarına dahilim ve yazarın belirttiği üzere çocukluğumdan gelen ve beni nevrozlu kılan şeylerden nasıl kurtulabilirim. Bunların bir yanıtı yok. Bu insanlar mutlu olamaz, mutlu iliişkiler kuramaz veya iyi birer eş olamaz diye bitiriyor yazar çoğu yazısını.
Kazandırdığı bakış açısıyla çok kıymetli bir kitap olsa da psikanalizden ve hastalarda gördüğü ilerlemelerden biraz daha bahsetmesini isterdim. Tabii ki bu bir derleme ve dolayısıyla derli toplu bir başlangıcı ve sonu olması beklenemez. Yazarı Çağımızın Nevrotik Kişiliği ile okumaya devam edeceğim

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to read some parts even taking into account that the book was written in the 1920s but it provided an interesting dive into topics of feminine psychology. I especially liked the chapters on The Distrust Between the Sexes and Problems of Marriage. It helped me to understand Freudian theories a bit more, although some of them still seem completely out of pocket. Probably wouldn’t recommend this unless you want to learn about Freudian psychology or the historical context of psychology in the 1900s.

[Altynai · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am writing the review years later I have read it. I remember it being a quite technical text, and I enjoyed slowly "getting" the text that seemed difficult at first. I remember finding the connections within text and flipping the pages back and forth to check it. As for the content, some chapters like "Denial of Vagina" were interesting.
Back then Freud stated that women's psyches are not developed, so there is nothing to analyze. Horney disagreed with this, and here we have this book.

[Vitalie Ciobanu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh... prea multă comparație cu ce a zis Freud sau alți semeni de-ai lui. Toată cartea e scrisă cumva cu "copilaria" este singura cauza a tuturor problemelor prin care trece o femeie. Prea radical parcă

[Valeria Castro · Rating 1 out of 5]

No me lo he podido leer completo porque es PURO psicoanálisis 😫 y eso que plantea buenas preguntas y a ratos pareciera que quiere desmentir ciertas creencias aún así se guía por lo que dijo Freud 🤦🏻‍♀️
Si pudiese le pondría media estrella 🙃

[Mine Trak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kadın Ruh Bilimi adı ile yapılmış Türkçe çevirisinden(Mart 1986,ilk basım) okumuştum.

[Mahir Şanlı · Rating 5 out of 5]

Çok çok beğendim kitabı. Bana çok şey kattı. Psikoloji üzerine okunması gereken ilk 5 kitaptan biri diyebilirim.

[Otari]

იჰ

[Hilal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kutsal mı edilgen mi?

[Elnaz heidari · Rating 4 out of 5]

نظریه های جالبی داره من خودم یکباردیگه به خودم به عنوان یک زن نگاه کردم ولی نتونسته ازنگاه مردسالاری نجات پیداکنه

[ASC Library]

155.633 Hor

[Damian Mai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Crazy ass book. 30% disturbingly interesting and 70% delusionally unnerving.

[Emily Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very important book to me. I studied Freud in college and this is better, men should probably read it. Fuck Penis Envy, let’s finally let males admit to reproductive envy. #thankyoudoctor

[Tracie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering she was a contemporary of Freud’s, Horney’s work is surprisingly progressive. Wishing I had learned about her work years ago!

[Lena · Rating 1 out of 5]

bez komentarza

[Sheziss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me ha resultado especialmente difícil leer esta serie de artículos debido a mi tendencia a dispersarme y he tenido que pasar a leerlo en español. El tema de la sexualidad no me atrae especialmente, y los otros libros de la autora que tratan sobre la neurosis me resultan más significativos y atractivos.

[Bookaholic]

Karen Horney (n. 1885, Hamburg-1952) a fost medic psihiatru şi psihanalist de orientare neofreudiană. Autoare a mai multor cărţi (Personalitatea nevrotică a epocii noastre, Noi direcţii în psihanaliză, Autoanaliza), ea a predat la Institutul Psihanalitic din Berlin, Institutul Psihanalitic din Chicago şi la cel din New York. Psihologia femeii, apărută anul acesta la Editura Trei – traducere din engleză de Sofia Manuela Nicolae – cuprinde o serie de texte şi comunicări scrise/prezentate în anii ’20-’30, în descendenţa psihanalizei freudiene, însă adesea critice la adresa ipotezelor formulate de Freud: iată câteva titluri, în ordinea apariţiei în volum: „Despre originea complexului de castrare la femei”, „Fuga din feminitate. Complexul masculinităţii la femei, din perspectiva bărbaţilor şi a femeilor”, „Feminitate inhibată. O contribuţie psihanalitică la problema frigidităţii”, „Problema idealului monogamiei” ş.a.m.d.Deşi scrise, practic, înaintea şi în afara discursului feminist, cercetările lui Karen Horney – bazate pe experienţa ei clinică de psihanalist – sunt interesante şi astăzi, cu atât mai mult cu cât adoptă adesea, aşa cum spuneam, o poziţie rezervată sau critică în raport cu anumite teze, presupoziţii, preconcepţii vehiculate de psihanaliza freudiană. (cronică: http://bookaholic.ro/o-psihanalista-d...)

[Вікторія Слінявчук · Rating 3 out of 5]

Я читала более современных женщин-психоаналитиков, с тех пор психоанализ сильно шагнул вперед, так что Хорни неприятно удивила... По-моему, многое в этой книге страшно устарело, да и писалась она в 1930-40-х годах.
Гомосексуальность, женская или мужская, с ее точки зрения - перверсия, отклонение от нормального пути психосексуального развития, а если женщина не стремится к материнству - это она отказывается от своей женской роли (что плохо). Эту самую "женскую роль" она называет "половой ролью" - понятие "гендер" тогда еще было не в ходу, но по нынешним временам это уже режет глаз. Причем, к "женской половой роли" она относит не только материнство, но и домашнюю работу. В общем, такой себе эссе��циализм.

С другой стороны, Хорни указывает на то, что мужчины навязывают свои собственные представления о женщинах как "объективные" и научные, учитывает также реально существующую дискриминацию как важный фактор, влияющий на развитие женской психики. Также, кажется, Хорни первая противопоставила фрейдовской идеи "зависти к пенису" мысль о том, что мужчины завидуют женской репродуктивной способности, и даже в гораздо большей степени.

В англоязычных источниках ей приписывают создание "феминистской психологии". Но что-то не очень много феминистского я увидела в прочитанном...
Или просто надо делать скидку на время и относиться как к истории психологии (и феминизма)?

[wally · Rating 3 out of 5]

i liked it