1885–1952

GERMAN PSYCHIATRIST, PSYCHOANALYST, PROFESSOR

UNIVERSITY OF FREIBURG; UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN

Brief Overview

The study of mental health and the feminist movement are deeply indebted to Karen Horney for offering the world innovative and alternative views of psychodynamic theories. She influenced society and the treatment of the mentally ill in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ironically, Horney never perceived herself as a feminist, and many aspects of her lifestyle—especially her dependence on having a man in her life—appear to make that label problematic. In Europe, where Horney was born and began her career, the study of the mind was completely male-dominated, and came to be firmly under the sway of three men that were her contemporaries: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Alfred Adler. Yet despite these three disparate voices, Karen Horney was also able to make her voice heard.

Horney is...