You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Karen Horney was acquainted with and actually quoted from the writings of Daisetz T. Suzuki long before she ever met him. In her fourth book, Our Inner Conflicts, published in 1945, she wrote:
In general, the characteristics of an impairment of moral integrity are a decrease in sincerity and an increase in egocentricity. It is interesting to note in this connection that in Zen Buddhist writings sincerity is equated with wholehearted-ness, pointing to the very conclusion we reach on the basis of clinical observation—namely, that nobody divided within himself can be wholly sincere.
MONK: I understand that when a lion seizes upon his opponent, whether it is a hare or an elephant, he makes an exhaustive use of his power: pray tell me what is this power?
MASTER: The spirit of sincerity (literally, the power of not-deceiving).
Sincerity, that is not-deceiving, means “putting forth one's whole being,” technically known as “the whole being in action” … in which nothing is kept in reserve, nothing is expressed under disguise, nothing goes to waste. When a person lives like this, he is said to be a golden-haired lion; he is the symbol of virility, sincerity, wholeheartedness.2
The reference she gave for this quotation was: D. T. Suzuki, Zen Buddhism and Its Influence on Japanese Culture.1 Intriguing to observe, however, is that Suzuki had dedicated this volume “To My Friend Charles R. Crane,”2 one of America's ambassadors to China, who was the uncle of Cornelius Crane, who in turn had been in contact with Horney from approximately the mid-1930s. It is conceivable, therefore, that Horney may have known of this work as far back as 1938 or 1939.
Some eleven or twelve years later (during the 1950-51 academic year), Suzuki was living in New York City, under a Rockefeller Foundation Grant, lecturing at a number of northeastern colleges and universities. He