Horney Theory and Mother Child Impact on Early Childhood

“You need not, and in fact cannot, teach an acorn to grow into an oak tree, but when given a chance, its intrinsic potentialities will develop. Similarly, the human individual, given a chance, tends to develop his particular human potentialities.”1 The words are those of Karen Horney, who elaborates their meaning for the child and for the adult through her theory and throughout her work. Studies over recent decades, particularly those of Margaret Mahler, raise for me the question of what these words of Horney mean for the infant from parturition, through the dawning recognition that there is someone there, outside, a mothering person, who will hear and respond, to the consolidation of that awareness into a known, integrated, and trusted aspect of experience.

Horney believed in the potential of the human being for lifelong growth and development. All of us as psychoanalysts confirm this belief as we work with adult patients toward the realization of their potential for movement in healthier directions. In reflecting about growth, we must recognize that for the infant and toddler there are unique issues that are different from those of any other period of life. Horney pointed out, “After the first two or three years of life there is a decided change from the prevailingly biological dependence to a kind of dependence that includes the mental intellectual and spiritual life of the child.”2 In this paper, I would like to consider the special needs of the infant and toddler and to speculate about how Horney theory might help us understand the developing child in his earliest years. Specifically, what does it mean to give the infant a chance to develop his potential? It is useful to review the work of Margaret Mahler in looking at the development of the infant from birth through the first three years. Mahler views the infant as being in an autistic phase for the first