Karen also studied at the University of Gottingen in 1908, and finally graduated from the University of Berlin in 1911, and received the Medical Degree in 1915(O'Conneil, 1980). Karen Horney's departure from Freud was, at the time, controversial (Smith, 2007). In 1922 she presented a paper "The Genesis of the Castration Complex in Women", to the International Congress that was convening in Berlin that year. Freud was the chair of the congress and refuted her work (O'Conneil, 1980). Horney's childhood experiences later in life, would contribute to the basics of the personality theories that she developed (O'Conneil, 1980).
Personality Theory.
Even though Karen Horney died over 50 years ago, her theories on personality are still relevant (Smith, 2007). Her theories were focused around what she called "basic anxiety" (Smith, 2007). According to Horney's theory, basic anxiety is a result of pathogenic conditions in childhood. The conditions that contribute to basic anxiety in children happen when they feel unsafe or unloved, causing them to feel a sense of helplessness (Smith, 2007). Horney, unlike Freud, believed that people are not good or bad, they are a product of their environment. The defenses that people use to fend off basic anxiety can become self-defeating or self-destructive. Horney, along with other "Neo-Freudians", believed that factors other than biology play a role in our development (Smith, 2007). Horney believed that what drives us is given mean through our interpersonal, social, and cultural factors are the cause of personality disorders, instead of sexual difficulties (Smith, 2007). Our environment, peers, societal surrounds, in essence the world in which we live, is what shapes our personalities. .
Horney believed that people are ruled not by the pleasure center, but by the need to feel safe (Smith, 2007). She saw a mixture of forces, both internal and external, controlling our behavior; not just on pure instinct.