The Karen Horney Clinic and the Legacy of Horney

The Karen Horney Clinic is in its 54th year. It was founded by the Karen Horney Foundation, a group of Karen Horney's friends, patients and supporters in 1955, a few years after her death. They wanted her psychoanalytic ideas to be utilized in a low-cost Clinic so that people from all walks of life could benefit from her rich ideas regarding patient care.

The Karen Horney Clinic became the training ground for candidates of the American Institute for Psychoanalysis. Patients were seen for psychoanalysis at low cost and were treated by psychiatrists who were candidates in training. Most of the patients suffered from mild to moderate neurotic disturbances. The supervisors of the candidates were graduates of the Institute. A close affiliation was forged between the Institute and Clinic which lasts until today. The Institute's students still treat patients at the Clinic and still receive Institute supervision but much has changed.

In the 1980s the Institute expanded by starting the first Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Program in New York City. This complemented the more rigorous Psychoanalytic Program of the Institute. Now Clinic patients received psychotherapy as well as the more formal psychoanalytic treatment. At the same time the Institute was one of the first ones in New York to accept social workers, nurses and psychologists to both of its programs. The Clinic personnel expanded to include these new professionals as well as a new patient population which now included patients with more varied diagnoses, more severe psychopathology and many in need of medication.

The Clinic programs now include a Child and Adolescent Program, a Trauma Program for those with stress disorders, and a Co-occurring chemical abuse and psychiatric program in addition to the Adult Program for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. The treating staff of the Clinic includes many Institute students as well as many other professionals including