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     In this book, Karen Horney explores the basic structure of neuroses in the context of their cultural assumptions. Her topics range from the neurotic need for affection, to guilt feelings and the quest for power, prestige and possession. Horney maintains that the conflicts found in neurotic persons in a given culture correspond to to the ways of life characteristic of that culture. She writes for example, " It is only under definite cultural conditions that we find domineering or self- sacrificing mothers, and it is also only because of these existing conditions that such an experience will have an influence on later life."

    

    They attracted nation-wide attention and each was attended by a large and enthusiastic audience. In them the greatest living man of letters illuminates the work of three of the greatest minds of modern civilization and at the same time sets forth his own social and aesthetic beliefs. They are rich and stimulating reading and indispensable to an understanding of Thomas Mann himself. They should be of interest both to those who were unable to attend the lectures and to those who were able to do so but want them in permanent form.