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¶ … Psychologists Who Influenced Me the Most

This paper tells about the life and times of three prominent Psychologists who have influenced me. The three include: Dorothea Dix, Karen Horney, and Carl Rogers. The paper aims to present insights into their lives including how they overcame adversity and challenges and inherently applied those life experiences into the realm of their work. Like many more notable psychologist such as B.F. Skinner, Sigmund Freud and Abraham Maslow, the contribution from each of my chosen inspirations has been just as significant to the overall achievements of the field of study. For example, in a recent Review of General Psychology, the top 100 psychologists were ranked and Carl Rogers was number 5. Although the other two individuals were not in the top 100, I still believe that their work deserved recognition. The problem was that the ranking criteria unfortunately excluded them. "The rankings were based on the frequency of three variables: journal citation, introductory psychology textbook citation and survey response. Surveys were sent to 1,725 members of the American Psychological Society, asking them to list the top psychologists of the century. Researchers also took into account whether the psychologists had a National Academy of Sciences membership, were elected as APA president or received the APA Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award, and whether their surname was used as an eponym." (Review of General Psychology, 2002)

Dorothea Dix

Dorothea Lynde Dix was born technically in Massachusetts because the actual location was on the Maine frontier which had not ratified statehood yet. She was said to have had an unhappy childhood which entailed her leaving home at the young age of 12 to live with relatives in the Boston and Worcester areas. "Her father was an itinerant Methodist preacher. Hampden was taken over by the British in the War of 1812, however, the Dix's took refuge in Vermont shortly before the war began. Her family life can be described as abusive and nonexistent. Her mother was not in good mental health and her father was an abusive alcoholic." (Bumb, 2005)

To demonstrate her advanced mental posture, she opened a school for young children in 1816 when she was only 14 years old. "In the fall of 1816, at age fifteen, she faced her first twenty pupils between the ages of six and eight. She ran this school of sorts for three years. All this time Edward would continually visit her and keep her company. She was forever grateful to Edward for getting her dream of a school to become a reality." (Bumb, 2005)

She enjoyed a brilliant twenty year educational that consisted of teaching the subjects of poetry and religion for young readers. She was known to have written several textbooks and critiqued other existing manuals of her time. Although she suffered from poor health, her ambition forced her to travel often to England where she was considered ahead of her time in regard to dealing with the mentally challenged. She was known especially for meeting and instructing various reformers regarding the treatment and methods for instituting change for the mentally ill. "Once she got to Europe she had no time to rest for she began her process of inspecting jails and almshouses there as well. She traveled to England, Scotland, France, Austria, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and Germany. In a period of 1854 to 1856 she made an effective change in the way Europeans dealt with the mentally ill as she had in the United States." (Bumb, 2005)

Her overall contribution to society and those that are mentally challenged becomes apparent when one understands her contribution. When she was almost 40 years old, she reached a pinnacle in her life. "Dorothea Lynde Dix was a woman who accomplished much in her life. She was firstly a teacher and then a social reformer for the treatment of the mentally ill. In her life her goals were not defined, she simply did whatever would best help people. She began a change in the United States with mental institutions at the age of thirty-nine." (Bumb, 2005) While teaching Sunday school for a class of women in an East Cambridge jail, she noticed that the majority of the inmates were only guilty of one thing - being mentally ill. "Upon entering the jail she witnessed such horrible images that her life, from that point on, was changed forever. Within the confines of this jail she observed prostitutes, drunks, criminals, retarded individuals, and the mentally ill were all housed together in unheated, unfurnished, and foul-smelling quarters." (Bumb, 2005)

She was so taken aback by this new insight that she vowed to have the magistrate correct the living conditions and whenever possible release these retched souls. She took the matter to the local courts and although all of her charges were denied, the prison's living conditions were enhanced to the benefit of the inmates. One most understand that during her time, there were few institutions that offered assistance or treatment for the insane. Those that suffered from mental illness usually were subjected to harsh conditions in their personal homes, prisons, or in the common poorhouses.

Dorothea Dix devoted her life to correcting this predicament. Like Christopher Reeves became the voice of the disabled prior to his passing, Dix attacked the problem and became the "voice for the mad." Her life from that pint on was a series of surveying jails, poorhouses, and other correctional facilities throughout Massachusetts. One major success in that state occurred in the month of January 1843. Dix delivered a long and overly dramatic report to the state's legislative representatives and with the assistance of several key connections, she succeeded in persuading the legislators to appropriate funds that could be used to expand the state hospital for the insane in Worcester.

The victories in Massachusetts lead here to crusade in many other states. Again, her health was poor yet she traversed more than 30,000 miles in a three years period. Her negotiating approach was designed to shame legislatures into acting in her favor. Her work was so effective that the number of mental hospitals throughout the country jumped from 13 in 1843 to over 120 by 1880. Dorothea Dix literally crated the funding sources for more than thirty of them.

Although her mission was to help the mentally ill, she also had a life goal that included continued lobby for prison reform and education for the blind. She became such a skilled lobbyist that she was a highly sought after speaker for politically active women during the period. Her life was so influential that she was honorably provided a guest quarter in a state hospital that she had helped found 35 years prior -- she died there in 1887 at the age of 85.

Karen Horney

Karen Horney was born on September 16, 1885. Her parents, Clotilde and Berndt Wackels Danielson were said to be complete opposites. Her father was an authoritarian ship's captain and a very pious individual and his children were known to call him the 'bible thrower' behind his back. Horney's mother was a very different type of individual. The mother was very modern and sophisticated and was Berndt's second wife. The age difference between the two was almost 20 years. Horney had an older brother named Berndt as well from her father's previous marriage. Her childhood was said to have been based on many misperceptions such as distinguishing her fathers motivations and love based on his ability to harshly discipline the children yet bringing them gifts from all over the world. She also attended several long sea voyages with him which was quite abnormal for the times.

She was thought to have been ambitious and even rebellious early on. She was said to have followed a path of being smart because she considered herself not to be pretty. There were rumors of her being very sexually attracted to her brother who then pushed her away mentally. She fell to depression after this and this problem stayed with her on and off of the rest of her life. Her family problems included being left behind with the strict father after they divorced in 1904. She entered medical school in 1906. She did this against her father's and technically society's wishes. During her tenure in school, she met a law student named Oscar Horney and they were married 1909. One year later she gave birth to the first of her three daughters. One year later her mother died and the culmination of all of these events steered her into the realm of psychoanalysis.

There was a great deal of turmoil in her life such as her husband's authoritarian abuse of his children, his business ventures failing and his getting meningitis. Also her brother died and all of these events started to show in her personality. She was literally discussing suicide on a regular basis.

She eventually moved out of her husband's home with her daughters and migrated to New York in 1930. During this time, she became very close with other great thinkers of the time such as Erich Fromm and Harry Stack Sullivan. There were many rumors of an affair with Fromm during the period she was developing her theories on neurosis. "Horney is best known for her theory of neurosis, which she saw as much more continuous with normal life than previous theorists. Specifically, she saw neurosis as an attempt to make life bearable, as a way of "interpersonal control and coping." It might be argued that this is what we all try to do on a continuous basis, though only some of us are successful, whereas the neurotic are not." (Quinn, 2005)

She created the patterns of Neurotic Needs becauee she had a "... another way of looking at neurosis -- in terms of self-image. For Horney, the self is the core of your being, your potential. If you were healthy, you would have an accurate conception of who you are, and you would then be free to realize that potential (self-realization)." (Quinn, 2005) These entailed:

The neurotic need for affection and approval, the indiscriminate need to please others and be liked by them the neurotic need for a partner, for someone who will take over one's life. This includes the idea that love will solve all of one's problems. Again, we all would like a partner to share life with, but the neurotic goes a step or two too far

The neurotic need to restrict one's life to narrow borders, to be undemanding, satisfied with little, to be inconspicuous. Even this has its normal counterpart. Who hasn't felt the need to simplify life when it gets too stressful, to join a monastic order, disappear into routine, or to return to the womb?

The neurotic need for power, for control over others, for a facade of omnipotence. We all seek strength, but the neurotic may be desperate for it. This is dominance for its own sake, often accompanied by a contempt for the weak and a strong belief in one's own rational powers