Karen Horney's Depression Case Study

Later into Karen’s education years she decided that she wanted to be a physician and it was greatly encouraged by her mother, but frowned upon by her father. Even though she was firm in her belief to become a doctor, during that time period and even at the end of the nineteenth century it was still unusual and uncommon for women to practice medicine. She went to school in Berlin, Germany, for medical, psychiatric, and psychoanalytic training and later met Oscar Horney, which she married at the age of twenty-four in 1909. Together they had three daughters and the marriage between them lasted up until 1937, but in between those years Karen lived a rather pleasurable and promiscuous lifestyle. She had her first affair in early 1911 and that was the beginning of her
When the others noticed that she had been gone for some time, they went to search for her and found her contemplating her life. This was one of several depression episodes Karen experienced in her life and they were supported by the painful and enduring losses of a life she had experienced. Apart from her social and familial life, she had environmental factors of influences as well. Spending most of her time Berlin, Germany, this was the time of the rise and fall of the Second Reich and of the Kaiser’s dominion. Not too much surprise this was a time in which women roles were limited and there was an unequal status for women, but this had no effects on her want to further explore her interest in feminine psychology. Also during this time this was when the rise of Hitler was taking place and so that too had influential effects on the sociological position of women as well as Karen’s disposition on the matter concerning social issues and world situations. Other political environmental and social factors during this time was World War I and the founding of the Berlin Psychoanalytic