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The reader of this thoughtful monograph will discover very soon that it is much more than an introduction to Horney's interpersonal theories: it reports on Horney's childhood and family background, on her training as psychoanalyst, on her work and publications; it probes the roots (psychoanalytic, anthropological, sociological, and philosophical) of her holistic views; it summarizes each book and shows how each paper and book is another step in Horney's growth and development. Its thorough bibliography quotes from most authors who have commented on Horney. It gives an overview of Horney's role and importance as a psychoanalytic pioneer. Even the footnotes are a treasure. From the first part of the book, in which Dr. Garofalo writes of Horney's family and cultural background and of her struggle to become a doctor against strong resistance of her father and the customs of the Victorian times, Dr. Garofalo points to Horney's life as a beautiful illustration of what she later called “morality of evolution.” Her life has been a paradigm of the unfolding of the real self through the search for truth, spontaneity, and authenticity.
When Hamburg became too small, she moved to the more cosmopolitan Berlin; when she felt too cramped in Germany, she left for the freer United States. The external geographical moves went hand in hand with the ever-greater expansion of her thoughts. From her first paper (“Die Technik der psychoanalytischen Therapie”) she questioned established credos. She trusted only her own clinical observations.
From focusing on the psychology of one gender (her own) in her papers on feminine psychology, she broadened her study to the psychology of people, that is, of both genders (in The Neurotic Personality of our Time). Then she abandoned the instincts as main dynamic forces in conflict (New Ways in Psychoanalysis). Finally, Horney emphasized the intrapsychic creative elaboration of interpersonal-cultural influences; she turned to the selves: idealized, actua