Major Contributions to Psychology Karen Horney made significant contributions to humanism, self-psychology, psychoanalysis, and feminine psychology. Her refutation of Freud’s theories about women generated more interest in the psychology of women.Click to see full answer. Furthermore, what is Horney’s theory?Psychoanalytic theorist Karen Horney developed one of the best-known theories of neurosis. She believed that neurosis resulted from basic anxiety caused by interpersonal relationships. Horney’s theory proposes that strategies used to cope with anxiety can be overused, causing them to take on the appearance of needs. what did Karen Horney study? Horney is widely regarded as the founder of feminine psychiatry, which focuses on the psychiatric treatment of women, and feminist psychology, which studies the ways in which gender power imbalances affect both mental health and the development of psychological theories. In respect to this, how did Horney differ from Freud? Freud stated that women possess insecurities of being female and would rather be a male because of the difference of the anatomy. Horney believed the opposite to Freud. She believed men possessed jealous of the female anatomy and intrinsically women are smarter than men.Which of Freud’s theories or ideas did Karen Horney reject?Karen Horney wrote a paper rejecting Freud’s concept of “penis envy”. She agreed with Freud that women often feel inferior to men. But she disagreed that it was due to differences in genitalia. She felt it was more due to being raised in a society that overly-emphasized securing the love of a man.