Karen Horney was born September 16, 1885, to Clotilde and Berndt Wackels Danielson. Her father was a ship's captain, a religious man, and an authoritarian. Her mother, who was known as Sonni, was a very different person -- Berndt's second wife, 19 years his junior, and considerably more urbane. Horney's childhood was one of some distress. She felt like her father loved and respected her brother much more than he did of her. Yet he would take her on sea trips with him, and would buy gifts for her. She distanced her self from her father, and grew to recent him. She turned to her mother who gave her the love and respect that she desired. At the age of nine, she became ambitious and even rebellious. She had a very strong view of the world. That she couldn't make something of herself and do things that she loves by being pretty. During this time, she developed something of a crush on her own brother. Making her feelings known to him embarrassed him and pushed Karen away, these feelings of inadequacy could of lead to her first episode of depression. Depression would invade the rest of her life. In 1906, she entered medical school, against her parents' wishes as well as the opinions of polite society of the time. She met a law student named Oscar Horney, whom she married in 1909. She later had three daughters by him. She had married a man not unlike her father: Oscar was an authoritarian as harsh with his children just like Karen's father was with her. She did not stop her husband from making the same mistakes as her father but felt that it was good for her children. She later realizes that it was not such a good idea, and her beliefs on how to raise children changed. Karen and her daughters moved out of Oskar's house in 1926 and, four years later, moved to Brooklyn. There she meets Erich Fromm whom she had an affair with and Harry Stack Sullivan. This is where she developed her theories about neurosis. Her most famous theory is...
