SOURCE: "A Social Psychology of Women," in The Feminist Legacy of Karen Horney, Yale University Press, 1986, pp. 66-87.

In the following excerpt, Westkott offers a detailed examination of Horney's theory of neurosis, concluding that her "universalizing" of childhood experience—that is, Horney's view that the sources of neurosis are not gender-specific—is in fact a description of female psychology.

In her later work Horney built on her critique of Freud to create an alternative explanation of character development and conflict. This was her theory of neurosis, which substituted experience for instinct in explaining psychology. But with this alternative foundation Horney did more than give primacy to cultural context and social relations; she feminized psychoanalysis. More specifically, she universalized female experience as the basis for understanding human development and conflict.

The Theory of Neurosis

For Horney neurosis is the consequence of cultural contradictions and constricting expectations that block the...