Neurosis and Personal Growth. The Struggle for Self-Realization

Karen Horney (1885-1952) is among the most prominent psychoanalytic thinkers of the twentieth century. The book "Neurosis and Personal Growth" reveals the peculiarities of human behavior from the perspective of internal conflicts and defenses. In this work, the author showed that with the anxiety generated by the lack of a sense of safety, love, and recognition, a personality copes by renouncing its true feelings and inventing artificial defense strategies, both intrapsychic and interpersonal. This understanding provides great opportunities for both practitioners engaged in psychology and psychotherapy and scholars from various humanitarian fields.