Critical Evaluation of Karen Horney's Theory

The article “Freud on Narcissism-1916” summarizes Freud’s concepts of narcissism. The article explains, “Paraphrenia is defined with a) megalomania and b) a disconnect from reality. The libido that is returned to the ego creates a disinterest and indifference in the external world. The introverted libido, (the ego-libido), needs to store all the energy of the once object libido in the ego. The return of the libido causes

The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual describes personality disorders as being a pattern of enduring behavior and internal experiences that tends to digress a significant amount from the individual’s cultural and societal standards (Sadock, Kaplan & Sadock, 2015). This personality disorder is diagnosed in the presence of grandiosity and the need to be admired and appreciated. There is a chronic lack of empathy as well as inflated self-esteem and the belief that one is entitled to the adoration of others. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is classified under Cluster B, showcasing more erratic and emotional behavior which can be seen in the film American Psycho.

Karen Horney is one of the preeminent figures and founders of modern psychoanalysis. Although her ideas are not widely taught today or accepted as a basis of psychoanalysis in and of themselves, her ideas of social and environmental influences are “integrated into modern psychoanalysis therapies and personality development theory” (Quinn). She was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and was one of his early followers. Yet Horney joined the class of neo-Freudians after her research and writing led her to develop and establish psychoanalytical theories that ran counter to Freud's ideas. She objected to the Freudian psychology of women, which instigated the search for her own theories for the causes of neurosis. This in turn led to her

The point of view of which Freud interprets and examines the manifest of dreams content to obtain their latent meaning is of a professional psychologist and clinical observer who looked for a way to explain how our minds work and how the individual psychology functions. He based his work on clinical experiences and clinical neurosis of the matter of his own interpretations to be able to confirm his theories as a proven fact. The result Freud gets from the patients he observes and interpretation of their dreams are stereotyped to the complete human condition.

Belonging to a certain group is a natural experience in the lives of individuals. Groups are categorizable by a variety of options but often expel a trait that epitomizes each individual within the group such as rank, societal merit, or simply just appearance. Behaviorism gratifies purpose within cohort mentality among those in an association due to the psychological commonalities that bring these groups together. When it comes to an individual's development within a certain group, joint mentality helps create a safe environment but often times supports ideologies of self empowerment. Anthropologist Karen Ho composes the analysis of students whom graduate Ivy League universities and enter into financial professions, in her essay “Biographies

Narcissism is defined as the love of ones self. Sigmund Freud was the first to use the word to characterize certain character traits. He got the word from the Greek mythological legend Narcissus who saw his reflection in water and fell in love with himself. Freud suggests that all of us have a bit of self love, but when self love goes extreme it can be a problem and is considered a pathological problem. Nora from “The Doll House,” only exuded narcissistic behavior because she was treated like a doll. She was spoiled and only thought that that was how she was supposed to behave in order to get what she wanted or to please the men in her

Narcissism personality disorder according to DSM-V is (and now also in Section II of DSM-5) describe “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy . . .,” indicated by five or more of the following: (a) a grandiose sense of self-importance; (b) preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love; (c) beliefs of being special and unique; (d) requirements of excessive admiration; (e) a sense of entitlement; (f) interpersonal exploitativeness; (g) lack of empathy; (h) envy of others; and (i) arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes. Narcissism has been around or studied for thirty years. Rosenfeld thought that that his client had invented an alter ego at first. In the article what part do narcissism play in the narcissistic disorder? It talk about narcissistic disorder arise when an ego-destructive super ego has arisen in the course of development. The article talks about that trauma as a child or infant may also play a big part of narcissism. A large part of narcissistic disorder comes from a wide range of symptoms like self-enhancing and self-serving incentives. (Elsa Ronningstam) described a 21 none year old client that she treated, his parents brought him in to see her and they described him as selfish, inconsiderate, demanding, and demeaning, with threatening and verbally aggressive behavior, and involved in poly substance abuse (pp 434-438). Bob his self-admitted that some

Re-experiencing an event occurs in different ways. First, a person may have disturbing recollections of the traumatic event consciously while awake or unconsciously in a dream state. Other events may occur to trigger symptoms and the affected person may dissociate while reliving the traumatic moment or moments. The layman’s term, “flashback”, defines the common re-experiencing event where a person feels as though he or she is reliving the trauma (Kulkarni et al., 2011; Norman, 2000; Owens, Baker, Kasckow, Ciesla & Mohamed, 2005).

By studying the ideas of other psychologists and philosophers to support his own ideas, Freud was able to take the parts he agreed with and disprove the parts he did not agree with. He explores the ideas of Aristotle, Hildebrandt and Strumpell to name just a few. He agreed strongly with Aristotle’s belief that dreams are not divine in

“Anxiety represents a repetition of the early traumatic experience; Anxiety in the present is related to an earlier danger (Cervone, Pervin, Oliver 2005 p93).” Freud suggested in his psychoanalytic theory that anxiety result from conflict between the drive of the id instincts and the threat of punishment by the superego (Cervone, Pervin, Oliver 2005 p93).

It is a well-known fact that narcissists are great story tellers, and more often than not they are the center of their tale. According to Sigmund Freud, we are all born with a natural healthy form of narcissism, the notion of self-love and self-care, and a balance between them and the notion of object-love. However, when that balance is broken, it can greatly affect the individual and those around him. In

Freud’s theory is that dreaming is meaningful, unlike the activation synthesis theory. He believed that the mind had three sections, represented in a shape of an iceberg; the conscious, the subconscious and the unconscious. The conscious is the tip of the iceberg above the water involves everything we are aware of right now such as our thoughts. The

Freud continued his work on repression, memories, and past experiences of trauma to be the motive for all neurotic symptoms. Trauma in past experiences was not always the key determinant for hysteria cases, there needed to be another component for the cause. The combination of past trauma and present trauma awakened memories of the earlier trauma which constituted the true aggravation (Storr, 1989, p. 15). However, he began to see a common factor in his work. Next Freud noticed that a common denominator of all his hysteria cases was premature sexual experiences. Sex encompasses many emotions through mind, body, and spirit that can influence a great deal of character if repressed. Storr pointed out that, “Freud became more and more convinced that the chief

Her dreams would be more and more open with different therapists until she reached Jung and her initial dreams embraced him and they subsequently had a productive analysis. The cause of this patient's neurosis came to light later, but was in no way present in her initial dreams. Dreams can often be anticipatory and are misleading if looked at in merely causalistic ways.

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, takes the audience on a wild and confusing ride through the human unconscious. From the play within the play, to fairies causing mayhem, what is to be considered reality? The notion of falling asleep and dreaming is introduced over and over in the play, and leaves the audience wondering, is any of this real? Throughout this paper, I will attempt to explain the parallels between Shakespeare’s work, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the work of the Austrian neurologist, Sigmund Freud, whose most popular work is that of dreams and dream interpretations.