Customer Reviews

Our Inner Conflicts: A Constructive Theory of Neurosis

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You've read the above reviews, and I second them all, so I will not repeat them. Let me just add that you will want a pencil and highlighter, because you will be underlining, circling, and making notes to yourself in the margin. This is an irreplaceable tool if you're into self-cultivation. A giant step UP from the abundant new-age spiritual soul-candy out there. It is not a book on spirituality, but identifying and correcting our OWN inner conflicts is the cornerstone of spiritual practice; therefore I highly recommend it for seekers and cerebrals alike. Everyone has heard the saying "Know Thyself"; this book will help you do it.

Our Inner Conflicts offers fascinating insight into the conflicts which frustrate all of us to some extent, as well as a look into the psychology of the people that tend to frustrate us. I have read this book several times over the years, and each time have taken away something new. While this book is not as detailed as Horney's Neurosis and Human Growth, it is certainly more accessible. I recommend reading them both.

Karen Horney is one of the greatest of the Post-Freudian psychoanalysts. Horney's concepts of the root causes of neurosis, a basic anxiety, a sense of lurking hypocrisy , an idealized self image, conflicting impulses, are ingeniously insightful and, I have found, correct. Her paradigm is very useful for understanding human behavior; not only the behavior of those who would be diagnosed with a formal disorder but also of those whose personalities contain elements of neurosis not extensive enough for formal diagnosis. Understanding her concepts can also be valuable for those of us who would like to understand our own neuroses better. If you want to understand psychoanalysis, read Freud, read Jung, but read Horney as well. Without her ideas, your understanding will be sorely incomplete. Remember, Jung and Frued can be integrated with Horney, synthesis brings greater understanding. Read, learn, and enjoy the benefits.

I learned alot about myself and other people by reading this book. You learn about inner conflicts, what causes them, their symptoms, the consequences of having them, and how to go about resolving them. There is an emphasis on inner conflicts which are not conciously acknowledged. This book would be relevant to almost anyone as it seems that almost everyone has them to one degree or another as inner conflicts, as Karen points out, are a normal thing to have.

I first read this work 30 years ago. It remains as vital and relevant today as it was then. If you're serious about helping yourself get rid of old emotional baggage, this is a superior tool.

...and traces, not just the "pathways" of inner conflict, but their intertwinings, demonstrating with case examples how problems in one area of one's life put roots into many areas.

Karen Horney (1885-1952) was a German psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, who is sometimes classified as "Neo-Freudian," although she questioned many of Freud's theories (particularly about psychosexual development).

She stated in the Preface to this 1945 book, "This book ... has grown out of my experience in analytical work with my patients and with myself... It is my hope that the book will be useful to psychoanalysts who are seriously interested in improving our theory and therapy. I hope also that they will not only make the ideas presented here available to their patients but apply them to themselves as well."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"Though severe neuroses belong in the hands of experts, I still believe that with untiring effort we can ourselves go a long way toward disentangling our own conflicts." (Pg. 8)
"My own starting point was a different one. Freud's postulations in regard to feminine psychology set me thinking about the role of cultural factors. Their influence on our ideas of what constitutes masculinity or femininity was obvious, as it became just as obvious to me that Freud had arrived at certain erroneous conclusions because he failed to take them into account." (Pg. 11-12)
"My contention is that the conflict born of incompatible attitudes constitutes the core of neurosis and therefore deserves to be called basic." (Pg. 47)
"The task of therapy, therefore, is to make the patient aware of his idealized image in all its detail, to assist him in gradually understanding all its functions and subjective values, and to show him the suffering that it invariably entails." (Pg. 114)
"If analysts decide what needs analytical examination and what does not, do they not really proceed on the basis of the very judgments they consciously reject? ... Thus an analyst may feel that a man's philandering need not be analyzed, while a woman's deserves scrutiny." (Pg. 177)

I'm not a psychiatrist or a psychologist but I found this book quite helpful to understanding some of my inner conflicts. I reread some chapters a few times because I felt like with each re-reading, I learned something new. Would definitely recommend it to those who are interested in self-help books but aren't willing to read hundreds of pages of psychoanalytical works.

My goal in buying this book was to attempt a little self analysis and psychotherapy. Well, it's a great book I suppose but not for the amateur. I suspect it is required reading for graduate level mental health professionals.

It's very readable however; nicely organized. I am just in over my head with this one!

Maybe Karen Horney was one of the first modern feminists, for she broke with psychoanalytic tradition to pioneer a personality theory that would give culture as much credit as biology for shaping people's lives. A difficult read to be sure, but the insights are incredible.