Karen Horney (1885–1952) is one of the most important psychoanalytic thinkers of the twentieth century. The book “Neurosis and Personal Growth” reveals the characteristics of human behavior from the point of view of internal conflicts and defenses. In this work, the author showed that a person copes with anxiety, which is caused by a lack of a sense of security, love and recognition, by abandoning his true feelings and inventing artificial defense strategies for himself - both intrapsychic and interpersonal. This understanding provides great opportunities both for practitioners involved in psychology and psychotherapy, and for scientists of various humanitarian fields.