Dedication

Karen Horney has given us a rare, beautiful, and important gift. Her psychoanalytic theory contributes enormously to the humanizing process. It recognizes the fact that the human condition is much more than a series of biological instinctual patterns. Through her theory we perceive our species in its myriad unique richness. We are helped to understand ourselves relative to the time and place we live in. We come to understand the effects of culture on our lives and how we in turn contribute to and change our culture. Throughout the process, her therapy helps us to view ourselves and our fellows with both compassion and optimism. She contributes to a philosophy that helps to free us from sexual prejudice, self-hate, and destructive cynicism.

Her view is directly expressed in the following remarks she made at a meeting of the Auxiliary Council of the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis in 1942:

I should like to speak of psychoanalysis tonight, not in a learned manner, but rather as a sailor speaks of his boat. He knows its deficiencies and its assets, and loves it regardless of any faults it may have. We are often inarticulate in attempting to explain why we love a person or thing, and may even have to pause to define the reason carefully.

Why do I love psychoanalysis? At first I thought I loved it because it gave an interesting and sometimes an almost aesthetic pleasure. There is, for instance, a pleasure in analyzing a dream, in understanding its meaning, and in explaining it to a patient.

Secondly, there is the therapeutic appeal of psychoanalysis. It can cure neurotic disturbances, such as alcoholism, depression, fears of various sorts, etc. And there is great satisfaction when we succeed in helping a patient to become healthy.

These intellectual and therapeutic interests would intrigue me still today. But to stress them alone would appear to me like saying that you love a man because he is tall and handsome and has a nice voice, without considering other,