The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients

Karen Horney (1885-1952) was a German psychoanalyst who moved to the United States later in her life. She was one of the first prominent female psychoanalysts and was the founder of feminist psychology. A founding member of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute, Horney taught there while also working with patients. In the 1930s, she moved to the US and worked at the New School for Social Research and the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in New York City. Horney is known for her criticism of some Freudian perspectives, especially his views on the differences between the sexes, and for her advancement of feminist perspectives in psychoanalysis. She believed that society and culture had more influence on an individual’s development than biology. A prolific author, Horney wrote many books on psychology, including Feminine Psychology, The Neurotic Personality of Our Time, and Our Inner Conflicts.

In The Gift of Therapy, Yalom references one of Karen Horney’s books, Neurosis and Human Growth, calling it “the most useful book [he] read” as a psychotherapy student (17). Yalom credits Horney with the concept of removing obstacles through therapy to achieve self-realization. He writes, “If obstacles are removed, Horney believed, the individual will develop into a mature, fully realized adult, just as an acorn will develop into an oak tree” (17). Yalom shares how this analogy helped to inspire him to understand his work in a new way, and he focused his therapy on identifying and removing obstacles with his patients.

Carl Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist whose concepts of archetypes, complexes, the self, and the subconscious greatly influenced the development of the field of psychoanalysis. In the early 1900s, Jung worked closely with Freud, who considered him his intellectual successor; ultimately, the two parted ways due to intellectual differences. Jung communicated his ideas in several famous works, including Man and His Symbols, Psychology of the Unconscious, The Undiscovered Self, and Four Archetypes.

In The Gift of Therapy, Yalom builds on Jung’s idea that the “wounded healer,” or therapists with their own personal pain, can be more effective than therapists who struggle to relate to their patients. This idea builds on Yalom’s theme of Openness and Equality in the Therapist-Patient Relationship, as he suggests that self-disclosing similarities with the patient can help establish trust and forge a strong therapist-patient relationship. Yalom also echoes Jung’s position that therapists should customize their approach to reflect each patient’s individual needs and preferences. He explains that “Jung describes his appreciation of the uniqueness of each patient’s inner world and language, a uniqueness that requires the therapist to invent a new therapy language for each patient” (46), and Yalom fully agrees with this. Yalom’s passionate defense of this approach to therapy shows how Jung has influenced his opinion that “the flow of therapy should be spontaneous” (46).