{"id":522,"date":"2026-09-19T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ordinaryunhappiness.com\/?p=522"},"modified":"2026-09-22T18:14:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T18:14:45","slug":"episode-159-karen-horney-narcissism-part-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ordinaryunhappiness.com\/?p=522","title":{"rendered":"Episode 159: Karen Horney: Narcissism, Part 7"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/api\/rss\/u\/d3m7PxEp5smvZbVJaT8akVDUsyede5Br\/e\/169803693.mp3?sig=YsBy9-yc5q362ZOSnthd95Nj14OoPKxgmAb1BYVKxY4%3D\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Ordinary Unhappiness journey through the landscape of modern narcissism continues \u2013 and arrives in the United States! In this episode, Abby, Patrick, and Dan turn to the work of Karen Horney, a figure who has variously been called a Neo-Freudian, a forerunner of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis, a key player in a psychoanalytic \u201cCultural Turn,\u201d and one of the first prominent psychoanalytic feminists. But as Abby, Patrick, and Dan explore, such labels fall short of capturing the power of Horney\u2019s insights and the lucidity of her prose. Rejecting Freud\u2019s misogyny and his biological account of drives, Horney developed a psychoanalytic approach that was thoroughly cultural and that emphasized notions of selfhood and identity. For Horney, \u201cneurosis\u201d (IE, non-psychotic mental illness and problems in living) reflected the ways in which an individual\u2019s strategies for emotional survival, first developed during their childhood in response to distress in the family environment, could crystalize into maladaptive patterns for relating to both the self and to others. Horney thus saw \u201cnarcissism\u201d as useful only insofar as the term pinpointed \u201cself-inflation\u201d as a defensive strategy that, as Abby, Patrick, and Dan explain, comes at a painful and alienating price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">References:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Karen Horney, <em>New Ways in Psychoanalysis<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Horney, <em>Neurosis and Human Growth<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Horney, <em>Feminine Psychology<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Horney, <em>Our Inner Conflicts<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Horney, <em>Self-Analysis<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alice Miller, <em>The Drama of the Gifted Child<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jon Ronson, <em>The Psychopath Test<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Have you noticed that Freud is back? Got questions about psychoanalysis? Or maybe you\u2019ve traversed the fantasy and lived to tell the tale? Leave us a voicemail! (646) 450-0847<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A podcast about psychoanalysis, politics, pop culture, and the ways we suffer now. New episodes on Saturdays. Find us online:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ordinaryunhappiness.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.ordinaryunhappiness.com<\/a><br>X: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unhappinesspod\" target=\"_blank\">@UnhappinessPod<\/a><br>Instagram: <a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/ordinaryunhappiness\" target=\"_blank\">@OrdinaryUnhappiness<\/a><br>Patreon: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/OrdinaryUnhappiness\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/OrdinaryUnhappiness<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Theme song:<br>Formal Chicken &#8211; Gnossienne No. 1<br><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxO\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxO<\/a><br>Provided by Fruits Music<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ordinary Unhappiness journey through the landscape of modern narcissism continues \u2013 and arrives in the United States! In this episode, Abby, Patrick, and Dan turn to the work of Karen Horney, a figure who has variously been called a Neo-Freudian, a forerunner of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis, a key player in a psychoanalytic \u201cCultural Turn,\u201d and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast-episode"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ordinaryunhappiness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ordinaryunhappiness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ordinaryunhappiness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ordinaryunhappiness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ordinaryunhappiness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ordinaryunhappiness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":524,"href":"https:\/\/ordinaryunhappiness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ordinaryunhappiness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ordinaryunhappiness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ordinaryunhappiness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}