Karen Horney: A Psychoanalyst's Search for Self Understanding, Bernard J. Paris,  Yale University Press, 1994,  270 ps.

Bernard Paris, a Horneyan scholar of deserved repute, has written a controversial biography of Karen Horney. We are pleased to present two reviews of this important book. Michelle Price examines this book from a post Lacanian feminist perspective, and brings to her review her understanding of both postmodern theory and gender theory. Edward Clemmens, who knew Karen Horney as a teacher and colleague, brings a historical, humanistic perspective to his examination of her work. We welcome responses to these reviews.

R.S.G.

Bernard Paris has been prolific in his application of Horneyan theory to the analysis of literary texts. He is a powerful and vocal supporter of Karen Horney's works and singlehandedly founded the Karen Horney International Society. With dogged and strident persistence, he has managed to have her work acknowledged within academic and analytic circles. His recognition and utilization of her contributions is without question and has contributed strongly to keeping her voice alive in contemporary discourses.

In this most recent biography, Paris attempts to understand Horney through a reading of her theoretical texts. Through an intertwining of biographical information and her theories, Paris posits that her work was an attempt to describe and resolve some of the demons and conflicts that haunted Horney throughout her life. His biography tracks Horney and the various identities and positions she occupied: daughter, sister, student, wife, lover, mother, analyst, teacher, and friend. Paris attempts to illustrate how most, if not all, of her theoretical constructs were attempts to deal with her own conflicts, particularly regarding self-image, men, femininity, dependence, aggression, and sexuality. All of these struggles occurred within particular mini and macro cultural contexts that defined women in particular forms. Paris discusses this in regard to the cultural expectations of women as well as the particular dynamics that reverberated in Horney's family of