Karen Horney
German-American · 1885–1952
Psychoanalyst who challenged Freudian orthodoxy, argued that neurosis is largely a product of culture rather than biology, and articulated the tyranny of the idealized self-image.
Wikipedia ↗“The neurotic personality of our time is characterized not by specific symptoms but by a particular kind of inner conflict — a conflict between contradictory sets of values and desires that have been internalized from contradictory cultural demands.”
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“To find a mountain path all by oneself gives a greater feeling of strength than to take a path that is shown.”
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“Concern should drive us into action, not into a depression. No amount of brooding will achieve the insight or change that flows naturally from genuine self-awareness.”
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“Like Prometheus, the neurotic is chained to his rock of compulsion. He does not know that he forged the chains himself, and that it is he who possesses the key.”
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“The search for glory is the comprehensive drive to actualize the idealized self. Like any other compulsive drive, it is born of compulsion and aims at the impossible.”
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“The tyranny of the should is a peculiarly insidious form of self-coercion. Despising himself for not being what he "should" be, the neurotic person lives in a constant state of inner warfare.”
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