Karen Horney: Her Life and Contribution

In the psychoanalytic annals Karen Horney is known as a neo-Freudian. This designation has historical significance in the evolution of psychoanalytic concepts rather than representing any unified school of thought. In the mid-1930s and the early 1940s, psychoanalysis in the United States had emerged out of its disciplinary isolation and had entered into intense dialogues with scientists from other behavioral science fields, foremost with anthropologists, sociologists, theologians, and political scientists. These dialogues led to covert and overt conceptual changes. “Neo-Freudian” was the name given to a group of pioneering psychoanalysts who openly asserted the clinical significance of interpersonal, social, and cultural forces in the formation of personality development. They questioned or disavowed the libido theory, as they believed that sexual, aggressive, or oral drives in childhood received their meaning from the interpersonal forces at play in the child's environment. It was this disavowal of the libido theory, rather than the emphasis on cultural factors, which offended the orthodox Freudian group. Thus this venturesome group was given a new identity.

The leading pioneers in this group were Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, Harry Stack Sullivan, and Abraham Kardiner. The members of this group knew each other, debated with each other, influenced each other, but had no organizational bonds. The contribution of each differed as each ventured forth to enrich psychoanalysis from a new perspective. Kardiner brought his anthropological investigations to bear; Fromm's writing introduced a sociological and socioeconomic point of view; Sullivan developed his psychiatry from an interpersonal point of view; and Karen Horney described the progressive movement of the inner conflicts in neurotic character development. The two outstanding unifying beliefs of this group are (1) the crucial importance of cultural, environmental, and interpersonal factors in a person's development; an