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Mary was thirty-four when she came to the Karen Horney Clinic for therapy. Her chief presenting symptom was an intense fear of auditioning or performing in public despite six years of professional experience. Occasionally she would play for a small group of friends who knew and understood music. She could not practice for any length of time, but refused to give up music entirely.
Mary impressed her interviewers as desiring help. She was an attractive woman, well and neatly dressed, responsive to questioning but unspontaneous in her productions. She cried easily and indicated a great deal of internal turmoil. She felt desperate and lost. There was something tenacious and colorful in her which impressed me positively and to which I responded with a desire to help and treat her.
Mary, the eldest of three children, was born in the Southwest where she lived until the age of twenty-three. Her Protestant parents were from different economic and cultural backgrounds, and differed sharply in their personalities. She blamed them equally for her unhappy life. The father came from a poor family. He was now in the building-supply business and Mary saw him as deeply involved with the acquisition of money and worldly possessions. She also believed him to be crass, money mad, concerned with practicalities and financial success, insensitive to aesthetics, beauty, feelings, art, and spiritual qualities.
The mother came from a wealthy family. She was artistically inclined and had studied piano and ballet, all of which she gave up for the marriage that would take her away from her parents and home. While outwardly repudiating her own values and embracing those of her husband, she never lost an opportunity to remind him that she was better than he. She was very sensitive to status, prestige, and any external manifestations of wealth. She regretted that she had not pursued her study of the piano and encouraged Mary in her musical career. Mary saw her mother as a severe, strict, rigid