ABSTRACT
Karen Horney was a psychoanalytic theorist that became known as a “neo-Freudian.” She went to great lengths to correct many of the ideas that Freud had put into his own theories, especially about femininity and female sexuality. She felt like neurosis derived more from a sense of general anxiety and insecurity with one’s place in life. She developed many ideas about how social and cultural contexts could influence development from childhood on. She also moved the focus of her form of psychotherapy away from an investigation of the patient’s past (the traditional psychoanalytic approach) to an exploration of current life matters (which many forms of therapy still follow today). She also developed ideas around personality types that were based on people’s tendencies to move away, toward, or against other people, as well as a concept she called “the tyranny of the shoulds.” Actor exercises based on Horney include an investigation of one’s own neurotic patterns and how cultural variables influence our psychological lives (and those of the characters we play as actors).
