Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Towards Self-Realization 2nd Edition

Can’t believe this doesn’t get more recognition… even if you don’t agree with her take, KH is lucid, thorough, innovative, and deeply human in her search for the truth, and making sense of the world around her, thru the experience she’s garnered in analysis

A must read for any serious psychology student!This is a book that lays out Karen Horney's theory of neurosis. It is not a self-help book per se, but if you want to understand your inner subconscious processes - this is the best theory out there (in my opinion). It is complementary to ideas that you will find in CBT and Recovery literature.I challenge anyone out there to read a self-help book out there today that does not take at least one idea from this book.I have a Master's degree in psychology and have primarily trained in and use cognitive therapy. However, if you study cognitive therapy, Karen Horney will barely be a footnote. This is absolutely baffling to me after reading Neurosis and Human Growth. Horney makes reference to nearly every cognitive therapy concept out there including the role of attitudes and distorted thinking. When I have heard others reference her, they make reference to what she seems to be most famous for - "The Tyranny of the Should". Of course, Cognitive theorists have stolen this idea and have taken her words and twisted them into the term "cognitive distortion" ... or thinking error. This "thinking error" is called "shoulds" or "should statements." Albert Ellis called it "Must-erbation."Of course, the therapeutic methods used by Ellis and Beck are different than Horney's approach - which primarily used free association and dream interpretation to "uncover" subconscious thoughts and attitudes. Cognitive therapy has the same general aims but instead refers to the subconscious processes as "automatic thoughts." So, I'm not saying that Beck and Ellis made no original contributions. But, Horney's ideas supply the basic foundation.It's a bit frustrating for me that she gets very little credit to her immense contribution to the field of psychology - and she came by it by her own suffering and self-work. To me, it's as if Beck and Ellis stole her ideas, came up with some new therapeutic interventions and passed it all off as their own. Why else has Horney received so little attention?That brings me to another of Horney's contributions - "Self-Analysis" - Cognitive therapy self-help books proliferate stores today. She was the first psychiatrist to discuss this topic in her book "Self Analysis" (as far as I know).Even newer "Third Wave" CBT approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment therapy emphasize what is called "pragmatic truth criterion" - which Horney proposes in this book when she writes: "The criterion for what we cultivate or reject in ourselves lies in the question: Is a particular attitude or drive inductive or obstructive to my human growth?"There are many other examples I could point out. I hope that Horney will get the proper recognition that she deserves at some point in the future.

The Neverending Story (1984) was one of my favorites as a kid. In the movie, Bastian borrows a mysterious book and reads it in the school's attic in the middle of a storm. At some point he realizes the book's characters are talking to him.The quarantine of 2020 coupled with some personal issues triggered a three-year journey of self-discovery that culminated with this book. I stumbled upon Horney's book by chance, and I felt like Bastian reading book that's talking to me.This book not only confirms what I've been discovering about myself, it also describes many behaviors I've had my entire life. Sometimes the only difference is the words I choose to describe them.Other reviewers regret not finding this book earlier. I don't. I think those years of introspection were necessary for me to truly appreciate Horney's work.Every 10 pages I need to take a break to look away and digest what I just read. It's a slow burn but it very well may be one of the most meaningful books in my life. Karen Horney never met me, I wasn't even born yet, but she knew me better than my own mother.UPDATE: I just finished Chapter 7, whose focus is the expansive type of neurotic. The last few pages were extremely revealing, and they have shaken me to the core. I'm still processing the information, and something happened that didn't happen before: I feel a little concerned about myself because I'm aware of all the work that I still have ahead of me.

Dr. Karen Horney once wrote the following about genuine introspection: “you must not study only the highlights. You must take every opportunity to become familiar with this stranger or acquaintance that is yourself. This, by the way, is not a figurative way of speaking, for most people know very little about themselves, and only gradually learn to what extent they have lived in ignorance. If you want to know New York you do not merely look at it from the Empire State Building. You go to the lower East Side; you stroll through Central Park; you take a boat around Manhattan; you ride on a Fifth Avenue bus; and a great deal more. Opportunities to become familiar with yourself will offer themselves, and you will see them, provided you really want to know this queer fellow who lives your life. You will then be astonished to see that here you are irritated for no apparent reason, there you cannot make up your mind, here you were offensive without meaning to be, here you mysteriously lost your appetite, there you had an eating spell, here you could not bring yourself to answer a letter, there you were suddenly afraid of noises around you when alone, here you had a nightmare, there you felt hurt or humiliated, here you could not ask for a raise in salary or express a critical opinion. All these infinite observations represent that many entrances to the unfamiliar ground that is yourself. You start to wonder — which here, too, is the beginning of all wisdom…” (Self-Analysis)In her many works Dr. Horney shines a spotlight on aspects of ourselves that we might have never before even acknowledged, and in ‘Neurosis and Human Growth’ she is at her best. The strongest recommendation I can give for the book is that if you read it, you are virtually guaranteed to discover something new about yourself. The challenge is that it's not a beach read; it takes definite work to understand and apply in one's own unique life. But the reward is so well worth the effort. Cheers, Jesse