The Distrust Between the Sexes

A far too common cliché in life is the situation where; a woman gets pregnant, and the boyfriend leaves her. This is unfortunate happening that you hear about every day; the man either losses intrest, panics and solves the problem by leaving, or worst case, it was an accident. In Karen Horney's "The Distrust Between the Sexes", she explains how a person's psychological history causes him or her to distrust people of the opposite sex because of certain expectations they might have. Longings for happiness, childhood reflections, and childhood conflicts are all things that invent these expectations. First off, people are longing for happiness, while setting their expectations at high. Horney states, "All of our unconscious wishes, contradictory in their nature and expanding boundlessly on all sides, are waiting here for their fulfillment" (341). Children are raised to believe that relationships with the opposite sex are their doorway to happiness. Horney says, "The partner is supposed t...