Karen Horney's Psychological Approach in Reading a Story by James Turber

James Turber is one of the greatest contemporary American writers who has a worldwide reputation. He is known to be the second great satirist in America after Mark twain. In this article one of Turber’s famous stories, entitled “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is studied based on the Horney’s point of view. It is impossible to understand the hidden layers of the story without some kind of psychological criticism, and Horney’s approach demonstrates that Walter Mitty, the main character of the story, mirrors James Turber himself, who in the real life was so awkward, poor, and incapable; he attempts, thus, to compensate in the light of imagination, his misfortunes and inferiorities.