There are hundreds of different systems of psychotherapy today, ranging from the traditional "talking cure" to symbolic "re-birthing" and primal scream. The landscape is littered with serious social science, pop psychology, esoteric doctrine, and pure charlatanism. One of the obvious dangers of so many choices is that the best therapies may be lost in a profusion of competing schools and traditions.

To some extent, this has been the fate of the school of psychotherapy developed by Karen Horney. Since her death in 1952, Horney's work has received insufficient attention, in part...