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This small book by the youngest of our founder's three daughters is significant for a variety of reasons. Before having read it I expected it to be the author's autobiography, and therefore to contain material about her mother that had already been covered in the detailed tomes that most of us are familiar with. This, indeed, it does do, but in ways that differ. No attempt at hagiography here, as has been the case in some of the earlier works. Her stance is that of a daughter at various ages—a small child, a naughty brat, a dissatisfied young woman who loves her mother and does not receive enough love in return, and a mature and wiser adult. The relevant episodes are told in a forthright style, with a healthy sense of humor and, on occasion, an equally candid expression of pain and frustration. She relates that at the age of twenty-two she experienced “This, unfortunately, would be the first and only time that I had the opportunity to open my heart to my mother.”
Most of the other descriptive references to Karen Horney are more light-hearted. Many are humorous and all are enlightening. The intimacy of a daughter's perspective time and again surpasses in accuracy the erudition of colleagues and devoted followers. Renate Horney's aim and purpose in writing this book, however, was not