Horney was originally greatly influenced by Freud and studied psychoanalysis; however, she broke off from his theories later on and promoted self-analysis—the theory that suggested that the subjects were able to psychoanalyze and understand themselves. Freud believed that self-analysis was impossible. 

Horney suggested that safety and satisfaction were the two main needs of children. She theorized that a child would grow up to display neurosis if they were denied these needs.

Horney described moving towards people, moving against people, and moving away from people as the three types of neurotic adjustments. These adjustments all allow the neurotic to maintain their “idealized self.”

Moving away from people can be represented by the mindset of “if I don’t get close to you, you cannot hurt me.” Neurotics want to maintain their idealized self, and do not want to be perceived as doing anything wrong. As a result, they believe that if they do not get close to people, then their decisions cannot be questioned.

Freud believed that human personality was a battle between the id, superego, and ego. He believed that the id was the primitive and instinctive part of personality that compelled a person to seek basic primal desires. He theorized that the ego was the part of personality that mediated and controlled the id and that the superego incorporates all the morals and rules of society. This causes people to feel guilt for wrong actions.

The five-factor theory of personality states that there are five basic dimensions that make up personality: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness.

It is important tot note that, although personality can change, it tends to be consistent and stable across an individual’s lifetime. Personality can be thought of as patterns of thoughts and actions that are characteristic and unique to a certain person. 

Freud, the father of psychodynamic theory, believed that personality was formed during early childhood through experiences with parents as well as the sexual desires that were felt and unfulfilled during this period. He believed that personality and sexuality were closely related and theorized that every person's sexuality was awakened in early childhood.

Freud's psychosexual stages use sexuality to explain personality and are named for the area of the body that children derive sexual pleasure from at that point in their development. The stages are: oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital. During the oral stage, for example, the child derives pleasure from sucking and biting. 

Freud's psychosexual stages use sexuality to explain personality and are named for the area of the body that children derive sexual pleasure from at that point in their development. In order, the stages are oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital. During the oral stage, the child derives pleasure from sucking and biting. During the anal stage, the child derives pleasure from excreting waste. During the phallic stage, the child derives pleasure from the genitalia. During latency, sexual pleasure is repressed.  Last, during the genital stage, pleasure is derived from sexual intercourse.