SOURCE: "XXI: Neurosis and Human Growth," in Karen Horney: Gentle Rebel of Psychoanalysis, New York: The Dial Press, 1978, pp. 304-17.

In the following excerpt from his biography of Horney, Rubins discusses Neurosis and Human Growth, examining the ways in which this articulation of her psychiatric approach differs from earlier ones. Rubins also briefly addresses the extent of Horney's influence on world psychiatry.

Neurosis and Human Growth constituted the fourth and final version of Karen's psychoanalytic theory. It showed many changes from her earlier writings: in the style of writing, in emphasis and details of the theoretical structure and in the overall spirit of her thinking.

One modification was the different significance accorded to the idealized image of the self. Previously the creation of this irrational self-image had been seen as only one of four major defensive solutions to conflict. Now it became the nuclear process of neurotic development...