Karen Horney: The Three Phases of Her Thought

Karen Horney occupies a prominent place among the pioneers in psychology. Her thought went through three distinct phases, in each of which she made major contributions to psychoanalytic theory. During the first phase, in the 1920s and early 1930s, she wrote a series of essays in which she tried to modify orthodox ideas about feminine psychology while staying within the framework of Freudian theory. In the second phase, she tried to redefine psychoanalysis, replacing Freud's biological orientation with an emphasis on culture and interpersonal relationships. Her major works in this phase were The Neurotic Personality of Our Time (1937) and New Ways in Psychoanalysis (1939). In the third phase, represented by Our Inner Conflicts (1945) and Neurosis and Human Growth (1950), she developed her mature theory, which posited that individuals cope with the anxiety produced by feeling unsafe, unloved, and unvalued by disowning their spontaneous feelings and developing elaborate strategies of defense.