Annotated Bibliography « Karen Horney & Humanistic Psychoanalysis

(Note: Most of Horney's books, unlike her articles, were written for the layperson. All of Horney's books are in print and available in paperbound editions.)

Horney, K. (1937). The neurotic personality of our time. New York: Norton. Argues for the influence of culture on personality and sets up a new paradigm for the structure of neurosis.

---. (1939). New ways in psychoanalysis. New York: Norton. Systematic critique of Freud's theory, especially its emphasis on biological factors and infantile origins. Stresses environmental factors, current character structure, and self-realization as the object of therapy.

---. (1942). Self-analysis. New York: Norton. Describes the possibilities, techniques, and difficulties of both dyadic and self-analysis. Contains Horney's most fully developed case history, that of Clare, which is highly autobiographical.

---. (1945). Our inner conflicts. New York: Norton. Focuses on the interpersonal strategies of compliance (moving toward), aggression (moving against), and detachment (moving away from) and the conflicts between these strategies (the basic conflict). A good place to start reading Horney.

---. (1950). Neurosis and human growth. New York: Norton. Focuses on the intrapsychic strategies of self-idealization, the search for glory, neurotic pride, neurotic claims, and tyrannical shoulds, all of which simultaneously defend against and increase self-hate. Integrates the interpersonal strategies into a complete system, but in an occasionally confusing manner. Horney's most complex and important book. Written for fellow analysts but lucid and accessible to laypersons.

---. (1967). Feminine psychology, edited by H. Kelman. New York: Norton. Essays published between 1923 and 1935, many originally in German, developing Horney's disagreements with the prevailing phallocentric view of feminine psychology and advancing her own version of women's problems and the relations between the sexes. In their emphasis on the cultural construction of gender, these essays were decades ahead of their time.

—. (1999). The therapeutic process: essays and lectures. (B. Paris, Ed.). New Haven, Ct.: Yale University Press. The lectures constitute a version of the book Horney was preparing to write at her death. Volume provides the most complete record of Horney's ideas about the practice of psychotherapy.

—. (2000). The unknown Karen Horney: essays on gender, culture, and psychoanalysis. (B. Paris, Ed.). New Haven, Ct.: Yale University Press. In presenting eighteen previously unpublished pieces, four essays that have not been available in English, and other texts that have been difficult to locate, this collection makes accessible an important segment of Horney's work.

Paris, B. (1994). Karen Horney: a psychoanalyst's search for self-understanding. New Haven, Ct.: Yale University Press. Combines biography with a full account of Horney's theories. Argues that the evolution of her ideas is a product of her life-long effort to solve her problems by understanding herself. More a character portrait of Horney than a conventional biography.

Quinn, S. (1987). A Mind of her own: the life of Karen Horney. New York: Summit Books. The best account of Horney's social and cultural context and the events of her life. Less good on her inner life and her ideas, especially her mature theory.

Westkott, M. (1986). The feminist legacy of Karen Horney. New Haven, Ct.: Yale University Press. The most sustained effort to show how Horney's mature theory illuminates feminist issues.