Quotes by Karen Horney

“A perfectly normal person is rare in our civilization.”

“If you want to be proud of yourself, then do things in which you can take pride”

“There is no good reason why we should not develop and change until the last day we live.”

“The fact that compulsive drives for success will arise only in a competitive culture does not make them any less neurotic.”

“Also the natural sexual functions of establishing an intimate human contact frequently assume greater proportions. This is a well known fact about detached people for whom sexuality may be the only...”

“To find a mountain path all by oneself gives a greater feeling of strength than to take a path that is shown.”

“The declining of responsibility for the self can also be hidden behind a pseudo-objectivity. A patient may make astute observations about himself and give a fairly accurate report of what he dislik...”

“It is naturally a sign of inner liberation when a patient can squarely recognize his difficulties and take them with a grain of humor. But some patients at the beginning of analysis make incessant ...”

“The tenacity with which the neurotic adheres to any attitude is a sure indication that the attitude fulfills functions which seem indispensable in the framework of his neurosis.”

“The pride in intellect, or rather in the supremacy of the mind, is not restricted to those engaged in intellectual pursuits but is a regular occurrence in all neurosis.”

“Whether we forget something we are not proud of, or embellish it, or blame somebody else, we want to save face by not owning up to shortcomings.”

“Pride in many diverse ways is the enemy of love.”

“Like all sciences and all valuations, the psychology of women has hitherto been considered only from the point of view of men.”

“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 mo...”

“Life itself still remains a very effective therapist.”

“Fortunately analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist.”

“For the analyst it is a source of never-ending astonishment how comparatively well a person can function with the core of himself not participating.”

“Concern should drive us into action not into a depression.”

“The most comprehensive formulation of therapeutic goals is the striving for wholeheartedness: to be without pretense to be emotionally sincere to be able to put the whole of oneself into one's fe...”

“To find a mountain path all by oneself gives a greater feeling of strength than to take a path that is shown.”