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This work is an anthology of twenty-five papers written over the last two decades. Two of the papers were written by Dr. Horney and three of them were prepared by Dr. Rubins, a man who needs no introduction to Horney's followers. His reputation as a teacher is established, and he is recognized as one of the most active theoreticians of the American Institute for Psychoanalysis.
In his introduction Dr. Rubins wastes no time in calling to the reader's attention the animosity visited upon Horney by Freudians who, over thirty years ago, refused her annotations to and variations from their fixed beliefs. He mentions that Horney's theories were not at that time, nor are they now, static ones. He does not hesitate to mention the various gaps in her theory while commenting upon the relatively superficial appraisals of Horney by pundits such as Monroe, Mullahy, Hall, and Lindzey.
Those who have studied Horney know that her style was deceptively simple because she eschewed jargon. Her interest in communication was at variance with those who prefer a form of pseudoprofundity. The latter constitute her detractors. Dr. Rubins is kinder in his evaluation of Horney iconoclasts, although he later speaks about Horney with elements of the fervor Ernest Jones exudes throughout his biography of Freud.
A somewhat philosophical overview of the last twenty years is presented and the reader is clued in on the general content of the papers selected for the commemorative volume. The biographical study of Karen Horney is alone worth the purchase price. It is thorough and illuminating, while oscillating between empathy and objectivity. One comes to know the lady as the human being who breathed into her work the life, the vibrancy which was hers.
Dr. Horney was known for her great “polemic ardor” and her tendency to “involve herself in controversy….”These observations, via Alexander and Rado, are but samples of the editor's attempt to chronicle Horney with the scientific detachment of a Thucydides.