I need to acknowledge the tireless work of former chairs of CAFI, Ronald Benson and Alvin Robbins. After intense deliberation and consideration through these years, including the work of former liaison to AIP, Aimee Nover, and especially most recently through the stewardship of Sally Rosenberg, and this year helped by Diana Rosenstein, we are very pleased to ask the BOPS to accept the AIP as an Approved Institute of APsaA. We also ask that the BOPS
recognize the tireless work done by Ken Winarick, the President of AIP and Arthur Lynch, the former President, as well as congratulations and thanks to Nicole Dintenfass, the current Training Director.
Personally, I learned yesterday in a discussion with Ken and Art that Karen Horney was one of the first to stress the value of defense interpretations, instead of focusing on “deep unconscious interpretations,” which we all know now can often be guesses, not necessarily appropriate.
In a review of “Neurotic Personality of our Time” in the Psychoanalytic Review in 1938, the first PEP reference with the terms Horney and conflict, John Dollard, the noted sociologist, wrote that
“There are some defenses against anxiety which, Horney believes, are peculiarly available to neurotics in our particular society; they are individual competitive strivings, especially those for power, prestige, and possession. It is a particular merit of Horney’s thought that her system permits her to isolate the neurotic variants of these strivings. She shows (p. 186) how power wishes can be a reassurance against helplessness, prestige grabbing against fear of humiliations, and accumulation of possessions against basic fears of destitution. The consideration of power wishes under this sign, for example, makes them much more intelligible than when they are thought of merely in terms of one of their special forms, such as the effort to dominate and control the parents. Just how the undoubtedly significant childhood history of the individual person is to be reconciled with this analysis of power, prestige and possessive tendencies in the adult is not so clear.”
We have just published a treatment manual for children who exhibit externalizing behaviors. The manual stresses the centrality of defense interpretations against unpleasant affects, such as fear and humiliation. Thus, I was very pleased to learn that Karen Horney was one of our foremothers.
Leon Hoffman,
Chair of CAFI
January 13, 2016