Karen Danielson Horney

Karen Horney in 1938. Karen Horney 1938. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Annotated Links

American Institute for Psychoanalysis Founded in New York City by Karen Horney in 1941, the Institute trains therapists, maintains an active workshop and lecture program, and features internet guide to finding a therapist.

Biography and Overview of Theories Linda M. Woolf’s students in an advanced seminar at Webster University, St. Louis, designed this web page on Karen Horney as part of a larger project on Women’s Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society. See also Part 2: Odds, Madness and Triumph: The Life of Karen Horney.

e-Textbook From the electronic textbook created for undergraduate and graduate courses in Personality Theories by George Boeree of Shippensburg University.

Examples of the Three Neurotic Personality Styles suggested by high school and college teachers of psychology.

Feeling Angry or Guilty? Maybe It’s Time to Stop “Shoulding!” Therapist Clifford Lazarus argues that living under self-imposted “should, oughts, and musts” creates anger and guilt which makes life miserable for themselves and those around them.

International Karen Horney Society Founded in 1991 by Bernard J. Paris, Ph.D., and Helen De Rosis, the Society aims “to put people interested in Horney in touch with each other, to keep members informed of developments in Horney theory and Horney studies, and to call Horney’s contribution to the attention of those who may not be familiar with it”.

Lecture Notes by Chris VerWys, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

NPA Theory of Personality A.M. Benis developed this current theory of personality based on the theories of Karen Horney.

Overview Biography, Time Line, and Bibliography compiled by Gretchen Langenderfer at Muskingum College.

Assignments, Exercises, and Activities

Case Studies

The Aggressive Personality: Donald Trump. Donna Ashcroft created this slide presentation describing Horney’s concept of the Aggressive Personality and provides evidence to illustrate this personality with examples from Donald Trump’s behavior and personality.

Twilight Deconstructed Drawing on classic theorists including Carl Jung, Karen Horney, Erik Erikson, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and others, Donna Ashcraft takes a psychological and feminist approach to understanding the Twilight characters in her book Deconstructing Twilight: Psychological and Feminist Perspectives on the Series. Thanks to her publisher, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., you can read and download a PDF of Chapter 7 in which she uses Karen Horney’s 10 neurotic needs to understand the dynamics between Bella and her parents, Bella and Edward and more. (opens in PDF format)

Electronic Texts

Examples and Illustrations

The Aggressive Personality: Donald Trump. Donna Ashcroft created this slide presentation describing Horney’s concept of the Aggressive Personality and provides evidence to illustrate this personality with examples from Donald Trump’s behavior and personality.

Karen Horney’s Three Neurotic Personality Styles Add your own examples to this list of personalities from movies, tv, fiction, and real life.

Lecture Notes

Lecture Notes Victor Daniels, Sonoma State University, provides these lecture notes which provide an excellent overview of Horney’s theories, techniques, including her theoretical disagreements with Freud.

Karen Horney’s Social Ego Theory by Michael T. Hynan, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Slide Presentations

Tests, Measures, and Scales

NPA Personality Test This test — which measures Narcissism, Perfectionism, and Aggression — is from the work of A.M. Benis who developed the NPA theory of personality based on the theories of Karen Horney.

Multimedia Resources