Otto Rank facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Otto Rank
Born	Otto Rosenfeld 22 April 1884 (1884-04-22) Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died	31 October 1939(1939-10-31) (aged 55) New York City, US
Nationality	Austrian
Alma mater	University of Vienna
Known for	Creative will Psychoanalytic look at heroes and their births The Double Relationship and existential therapy
Spouse(s)	Beata Rank
Scientific career
Fields	Psychology
Institutions	University of Pennsylvania
Influences	Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Soren Kierkegaard
Influenced	Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Sándor Ferenczi, Jessie Taft, Esther Menaker, Carl Rogers, Paul Goodman, Rollo May, Irvin Yalom, R. D. Laing, Ernest Becker, Stanislav Grof, Matthew Fox, Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, Nella Larsen, Salvador Dalí, Martha Graham, Samuel Beckett

Otto Rank (born Otto Rosenfeld; 22 April 1884 – 31 October 1939) was an important Austrian thinker. He was a psychoanalyst, writer, and philosopher.

Born in Vienna, he worked closely with Sigmund Freud for 20 years. Rank wrote many books and articles about psychology. He also edited important journals and managed Freud's publishing house.

In 1926, Rank moved from Vienna to Paris. For the rest of his life, he was a successful speaker, writer, and therapist in France and the United States.

Working with Sigmund Freud

In 1905, when Otto Rank was 21, he showed Sigmund Freud a study he had written. Freud was so impressed that he asked Rank to become the Secretary of the new Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.

Rank was the first paid member of the psychoanalytic movement. He became Freud's "right-hand man" for almost 20 years. Freud thought Rank was the smartest of his students in Vienna.

Freud encouraged Rank to finish high school and go to the University of Vienna. Rank earned his PhD in literature in 1912. His main paper, about the story of Lohengrin, was published in 1911. It was the first book based on a Freudian doctoral paper.

Rank was part of a secret group of six people chosen by Freud. This "inner circle" helped defend psychoanalysis when others like Alfred Adler and Carl Jung disagreed with Freud.

Rank wrote more than anyone else in this group, except Freud himself. He expanded psychoanalytic theory to include legend, myth, art, creativity, and the idea of the The Double.

He worked closely with Freud and added chapters on myth and legend to Freud's famous book, The Interpretation of Dreams. Rank's name appeared with Freud's on the title page of this book for many years.

From 1915 to 1918, Rank was the Secretary of the International Psychoanalytical Association. Everyone knew how much Freud respected Rank's creative ideas. Freud even told his inner circle that Rank was "my heir."

In 1924, Rank published Das Trauma der Geburt, which means The Trauma of Birth.

Disagreements with Freud

After some time, Freud started to disagree with Rank's book The Trauma of Birth. Freud felt that Rank's ideas were too different from his own.

Freud told his friends that he was "boiling with rage." Because of Freud's strong opposition, Rank resigned from his positions. He left the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and Freud's publishing house.

Rank and Sándor Ferenczi had worked together on new ways of therapy. They believed therapy should focus on feelings and the "here-and-now" relationship between therapist and patient.

They felt that Freud's method made therapists too distant and emotionless. They thought this approach ignored the human feelings in therapy.

Left to right, seated: Sigmund Freud, Sándor Ferenczi, and Hanns Sachs. Standing: Otto Rank, Karl Abraham, Max Eitingon, and Ernest Jones. Photo 1922

Rank said that "surgical therapy" (meaning Freud's method) removes emotions. He believed that emotions are about relationships. Ignoring emotions also means ignoring a person's creative will and their relationships.

Psychoanalysis at that time did not have a good understanding of emotions. Many experts criticized this lack of focus on feelings.

Ernest Becker, a writer influenced by Rank, said that psychoanalysis often led to a "terrible deadness of emotion" in therapy.

After Freud turned against Rank, Ferenczi also publicly rejected Rank's book. Ferenczi even refused to speak to Rank when they met by chance.

This disagreement stopped new ideas in therapy from being accepted for a long time. Therapies that focused on relationships or the "here-and-now" were not popular for many years. People who were treated by Rank even had to get a "second" therapy session to join some groups.

Life and Work After Vienna

In May 1926, Otto Rank moved to Paris. He made the emotional relationship in the "here-and-now" the main part of his therapy. He became a therapist for artists like Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin. He also lectured at the Sorbonne.

Anaïs Nin felt changed by her therapy with Rank. She realized she wanted to be "re-born" as a woman and artist. Rank helped her understand her feelings, especially those that were hard to put into words.

Rank believed that all feelings are based in the present moment. In his book Will Therapy, he used the term "here and now" for the first time in therapy. He said that people often cling to the past to avoid feeling things in the present.

From 1926 to 1939, Rank was very successful as a therapist and writer in France and America. He often traveled between the two countries. He gave lectures at universities like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and University of Pennsylvania. He spoke about therapy focused on relationships, experiences, and the "here-and-now." He also talked about art, creativity, and "neurosis as a failure in creativity."

Rank was the first to suggest that growing as a person means letting go of old thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. He explored how people can be themselves within relationships. He believed people need both to be unique and to feel connected to others.

Rank was also the first to say that human development is a lifelong process. It means constantly balancing the desire to be an individual and the desire to connect with others.

Rank died in New York City in 1939 from a kidney infection. This was one month after Freud's death.

Rank's Influence on Others

Rollo May, a leader in existential psychotherapy in the United States, was greatly influenced by Rank. He saw Rank as the most important person who came before existential therapy. May called Rank "the great unacknowledged genius in Freud's circle."

In 1924, Jessie Taft, a feminist philosopher and social worker, met Otto Rank. She became his patient. Inspired by his ideas, she developed "relationship therapy" and a "functional model of social work."

Jessie Taft and Frederick Allen's work also introduced Carl Rogers to Rank's ideas. Rogers was a psychologist who later created "client-centered" therapy.

In 1936, Carl Rogers invited Otto Rank to give lectures in New York. Rogers said he became "infected with Rankian ideas." He always gave Rank credit for shaping his ""client-centered" therapy" and the field of counseling.

The writer Paul Goodman was a co-founder of Gestalt therapy. This therapy focuses on the "here-and-now," just like Rank's ideas. Goodman praised Rank's ideas on art and creativity.

Another Gestalt therapist, Erving Polster, said Rank brought the human relationship directly into therapy. Rank helped therapists focus on the real interaction between therapist and patient.

Rank's ideas also influenced therapies that involve action and reflection, like psychodrama.

Main Ideas

Rank was the first to see therapy as a way of learning and unlearning feelings. In therapy, patients can:

• Learn new, creative ways of thinking, feeling, and being in the present.
• Unlearn old, self-destructive ways of thinking, feeling, and being.

Rank's ideas about creativity have been used in "action learning." This is a way for groups to solve problems and learn together. It helps people question their old beliefs and find new ways of seeing things.

Rank believed that truly creative artists, like Rembrandt and Michelangelo, know how to move beyond their past successes. They keep reaching for new ideas, even beyond what they have already created.

Rank was the first psychologist to say that being creative for life means always being able to separate from old ideas and beliefs. This includes separating from cultural rules or old ways of thinking.

In a 1938 lecture, Rank said that life is a series of separations. It starts with birth and continues as we grow and change. We constantly let go of old parts of ourselves that we no longer need.

He said that people who cannot "unlearn" or let go of old ways are "neurotic." They get stuck in earlier stages of their development because they are afraid to change.

Rank also saw "resistance" in therapy as a positive thing. He called it "counterwill." He believed it helps people protect themselves and become more individual.

Unlearning means separating from parts of our self-concept that have been shaped by our family, groups, or culture. Rank said this separation is hard because it means letting go of ideas that are part of who we are.

In organizations, learning to unlearn is very important. It means questioning what we think is true about ourselves and our groups. By doing this, we can free ourselves from old ways of thinking.

Ernest Becker won a prize for his book The Denial of Death (1973). This book was based on Rank's later writings, especially Will Therapy and Art and Artist. Becker explored Rank's ideas about how history is shaped by people's desire for immortality.

Rank's ideas about "life fear and death fear" have also been studied in "Terror Management Theory."

The priest and theologian Matthew Fox considers Rank one of the most important psychologists of the 20th century.

Stanislav Grof, a founder of transpersonal psychology, based much of his work on Rank's The Trauma of Birth.

The philosopher Maxine Sheets-Johnstone praised Rank's ideas about "immortality ideologies." She said Rank's work helps us understand why humans need to believe in things that last forever.

Major Publications

By date of first publication

See also

In Spanish: Otto Rank para niños