Karen Horney quotes

Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning. (Karen Horney)
Concern should drive us into action, not into a depression. View quote
Karen Horney
A perfectly normal person is rare in our civilization. View quote
Karen Horney
If you want to be proud of yourself, then do things in which you can take pride. View quote
Karen Horney
Fortunately analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist. View quote
Karen Horney
Like all sciences and all valuations, the psychology of women has hitherto been considered only from the point of view of men. View quote
Karen Horney
To find a mountain path all by oneself gives a greater feeling of strength than to take a path that is shown. View quote
Karen Horney
Taking again as an example the need to appear perfect, I would be interested primarily in understanding what this trend accomplishes for the individual (eliminating conflicts with others and making him feel superior to others), and also what consequences the trend has on his character and his life. The latter investigation would make it possible to understand, for example, how such a person anxiously conforms with expectations and standards to the extent of becoming a mere automaton, and yet subversively defies them; how this double play results in listlessness and inertia; how he is proud of his apparent independence, yet actually is entirely dependent on the expectations and opinions of others; how he is terrified lest anyone should discover the flimsiness of his moral strivings and the duplicity which has pervaded his life; how this in turn has made him seclusive and hypersensitive to criticism. View quote
Karen Horney
Fortunately analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist... The therapy effected by life itself is not, however, within one's control. Neither hardships nor friendships nor religious experience can be arranged to meet the needs of the particular individual. Life as a therapist is ruthless; circumstances that are helpful to one neurotic may entirely crush another. View quote
Karen Horney
Life itself still remains a very effective therapist. View quote
Karen Horney
When one begins, as I did, to analyze men after a fairly long experience of analyzing women, one receives a most surprising impression of the intensity of this envy of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood, as well as of breasts and of the act of suckling. (Karen Horney)
Why is it so unutterably beneficial, the thought that someone besides myself knows me? View quote
Karen Horney
It is amazing how obtuse otherwise intelligent patients can become when it is a matter of seeing the inevitability of cause and effect in psychic matters. View quote
Karen Horney
A person so shut out from every possibility of happiness would have to be a veritable angel if he did not feel hatred toward a world he cannot belong to. View quote
Karen Horney