Karen Horney was trained in the pro-masculine perspective of Sigmund Freud, but she later on realized that her own orientation about the psychoanalytic view of women was skewed. This realization set her to create her own theory and went against several of Freud’s proposition. In the works of Horney, she mentioned that the psychic differences between men and women are not products of anatomical difference but rather a result of cultural and social demands and expectations (Feist & Feist, 2009). If Freud has the concept of Penis envy, Horney introduced the womb envy. Womb envy connotes the envy felt by men towards the women’s ability to nurture and sustain life. Horney (1967) that the envy felt by males towards a woman’s womb is more powerful than the penis envy experienced by women. However, as a psychoanalyst Horney still consider the womb envy as a product of sociocultural manifestation rather than a male’s innate psychological makeup. Horney believed that what women envy in men’s penises is not the organ itself but rather the corresponding power and prestige attached to it.
Horney is known for her Feminine Psychology, she argued that women are not inferior because of their anatomical makeup but because of the role society has bestowed upon them with. Horney agreed to the existence of Oedipus complex, where she mentioned that it was the result of environmental situations and not biology (Feist & Feist, 2009). She disputed Freud’s claim that Oedipus complex was universal, because she found no evidence pertaining to the applicability of the claim to the majority. Horney (1967) that t penis envy is even less acceptable, because of the lack of reason for girls to be atomically envious of boys, she added that some boys even outright mention their desire have babies, but that is not the result of a universal womb envy (Feist & Feist, 2009). Horney agreed with Adler’s claim that women possess a masculine protest, that women have a pathological disposition about the superior image men play in society. The disposition leads to the neurotic desire to be male, but not for the anatomical features but the privileges that correspond to the sex (Silver, 2007). Horney did not deny that some women feel inferior about themselves, but resented Freud’s claim that it is biological in nature. Women feel dominated because they are brought about in a male-dominated society; they are victims of cultural discrimination that made them have feelings of inferiority (Gilman, 2001). Gilman (2001) mentioned that some men feel little part in the creation of a new life that they turn to sublimating their womb envy and overcompensate for in other outlets such as in their work. Womb envy and the denial that comes with it is the reflection of the unconscious effort to belittle women and further reinforce their inferior status. The effort to unconscious attempt to downgrade women results to some women denying their femininity and result to what Horney consider as the flight from womanhood that can lead to sexual inhabitation (Horney, 1926).
References:
Fesit J & Feist G, Theories of Personality 7th Edition. McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
Gilman, S. L Karen Horney, M.D., 1885–1952. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 1205. Discusses Horney’s life and work and assesses the impact of her ideas on the beginnings of feminist theory. 2001
Horney, Karen . Feminine Psychology. W.W. Norton Company, New York. 1967
Silver, Catherine . Womb Envy: Loss and Grief of Maternal Body. Psychoanalytic Review. 2007
