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The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 66, No. 2, June 2006 ( 2006)
DOI: 10.1007/s11231-006-9008-4Celebrating the 120th Anniversary of Karen Horneys BirthKAREN HORNEY: A PORTRAIT1Marianne Horney EckardtI am going to sketch for you a portrait of Karen Horney emphasizing
two features: her remarkable strong sense of self-determination and the
seeming happenstance of being in the right place at the right time. She
collaborated with fate. She prescribed everything for it and fate facilitated
opportunities.Horney was a very private person. It is only due to our coming, after
her death, upon her diaries written in her adolescence and early twenties
that this remarkable young person made her appearance and shed much
light on later happenings. We owe the real discovery of the diaries to my
sister Renate. We had casually noted their existence. They then gathered
dust on Renates bookshelves in Mexico, when by some magical spiritual
happening she discovered them, transcribed them, had them translated,
and published them. All of Karens early entries, beginning at age 13, beguile with confident self-determination of her path, her actions, and her
thinking. She writes, "Fate will have an easy time with me, I prescribe
everything for it" (Horney, 1990, p. 19). She aims at being a doctor, even
though as yet no German university is admitting women to medical
school. She has no doubt that she will find a way. The word ambition
does not convey her spirit. She just makes her decision and follows her
mapped-out road. The diaries are never boring. She reflects on happenings, debates, asks big questions about religion, mores, love, morality,
and truth, and declares her opinion.1This address was given on October 23, 2005, at the American Institute for Psychoanalysis,
New York, celebrating the 120th anniversary of Karen Horneys birth.Address correspondence to: Marianne Horney Eckardt, 3066 Via Serena South Unit A, Laguna Woods, CA 92637, USA; e-mail: [email protected].
1050002-9548/06/0600-0105/1 2006 Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis106 HORNEY ECKARDTAt age 17 she is debating the ethics of free love. The turn of that century is still steeped in Victorian morals, ready to disintegrate. As yet she
has had no love experience of her own. She muses and declares that
deep love is always moral greatness, because it elevates us inwardly....