SOURCE: "The Contributions of Horneyan Psychology to the Study of Literature," in The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 42, No. 1, Spring, 1982, pp. 39-50.

In the following essay, which was originally presented at a conference held in February of 1981, Butery demonstrates some of the ways in which applying Horney's theories to the study of literary characters reveals a fuller sense of their often self-contradictory natures.

When accepting the Nobel Prize for literature, William Faulkner said that the "only" things "worth writing about" are the "problems of the human heart in conflict with itself." He laments that too many young writers "labo[r] under a curse" because they have ignored these problems. Many literary critics also labor under this curse, for the new emphasis on structuralism, semiotics, linguistic typology, and sociopolitical theory has resulted in a disregard of the mimetic quality, which to a great extent gives literature its power and...