It seems that Horney’s childhood had a huge influence on her view of Christianity and its place in human lives. Her father, a sea captain, was a misogynistic fundamentalist who apparently thought – without taking into consideration that the sin was Adam’s, not Eve’s – that women were the source of all the evil in the world because Eve gave into temptation in the Garden. (Karen Horney & Erich Fromm: Psychoanalytic Social Psychology, p. 649) Living with an – at best – verbally abusive father who excused his behavior by his (misinterpretation) of biblical principles, Horney knew that the bible said that she should honor her father but felt contradictory because she did not feel that he was a man worthy of honor.
At the time of her confirmation,
At the time of her confirmation,