Karen Horney: A Psychoanalysts Search for Self-Understanding

Karen Horney: A Psychoanalysts Search for Self-Understanding by Paris, Bernard J.. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780300068603.

Karen Horney (1885-1952) is regarded by many as one of the most important psychoanalytic thinkers of the twentieth century. Her early work in which she quarreled with Freuds views on female psychology established her as the first great psychoanalytic feminist. In her later years she developed a sophisticated theory of her own which provided powerful explanations of human behavior that have proved to be widely applicable. Yet through these years of intellectual achievement Horney struggled with emotional problems. This engrossing study of Horneys life and work draws on newly discovered materials to explore the relation between her personal history and the evolution of her ideas. Bernard J. Paris argues that Horneys inner struggles-in particular her compulsive need for men-induced her to embark on a search for self-understanding which she recorded first in her diaries and then in her covertly autobiographical psychoanalytic writings. Although this search brought Horney only partial relief from her problems it led her to profound and original insights into the human psyche. Paris describes Horneys life-her childhood and adolescence in Germany marriage to Oskar Horney motherhood analysis and self-analysis emigration to the United States founding of the American Institute for Psychoanalysis ostracism by the psychoanalytic establishment and her many romantic liaisons. At the same time he examines the various stages of Horneys thought showing how her experiences influenced her ideas. Focusing particularly on Horneys later work Paris shows her mature theory to be an important contribution to the study of literature biography gender and culture as well as to psychoanalysis and psychology.