Starovoytov, V. V. Karen Horney as a ‘Tender’ Rebel in Psychoanalysis

Abstract: The present article is devoted to studying life and creative work of the German-American psychologist, reformer of psychoanalysis and one of the leaders of Neo-Freudianism Karen Horney. The author of the article traces back the atmosphere in Karen Korney’s family that defined her personality as well as her further development as the doctor of medicine, psychoanalyst of Freudian school and the founder of her own concept of neurotic personality development. The author also describes Karen Horney’s views on woman’s psychology, marital problems and nonprofessional psychoanalysis. The author studies Karen Horney’s critical review of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory. As a result of her critics, Karen Horney refused from Freud’s genetic approach in favor of the current relations of a patient and his future life experience as the reason of neurosis. The main method used by the author of the article is the thorough study of the main terms and concepts in the five books published by Karen Horney as well as the detailed analysis of her life and activities based on English sources. By analyzing Karen Horney’s main ideas introduced in the five books that were written and published in the USA and made her famous all over the world as well as ostracism by a number of her colleagues for her withdrawing from classical psychoanalysis, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that if the first book by Karen Horney discussed neurosis as a result of disturbed interpersonal relations, then the concept of the idealized Self opened the gates to the intrapsychic life. The author of the article shows that Karen Horney created the theory that built some kind of a bridge between the psychobiological concept of human created by Sigmund Freud and socio-cultural personality concepts developed in the second half of the XX century.

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