'''Otto Rank''' (April 22, 1884 – October 31, 1939) was an Austrian [[psychoanalyst]], writer, teacher and therapist. Born in [[Vienna]] as '''Otto Rosenfeld''', he was one of [[Sigmund Freud]]'s closest colleagues for 20 years, a prolific writer on psychoanalytic themes, an editor of the two most important analytic journals, managing director of Freud's publishing house and a creative theorist and therapist. In 1926, Otto Rank left Vienna for Paris. For the remaining 14 years of his life, Rank had an exceptionally successful career as a lecturer, writer and therapist in France and the U.S.

'''Otto Rank''' (April 22, 1884 – October 31, 1939) was an Austrian [[psychoanalyst]], writer, teacher and therapist. Born in Vienna as '''Otto Rosenfeld''', he was one of [[Sigmund Freud]]'s closest colleagues for 20 years, a prolific writer on psychoanalytic themes, an editor of the two most important analytic journals, managing director of Freud's publishing house and a creative theorist and therapist. In 1926, Otto Rank left Vienna for Paris. For the remaining 14 years of his life, Rank had an exceptionally successful career as a lecturer, writer and therapist in France and the U.S.

== In the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society ==

== In the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society ==

In 1905, at the age of 21, Otto Rank presented Freud with a short manuscript on the artist, a study that so impressed Freud he invited Rank to become Secretary of the emerging [[Vienna Psychoanalytic Society]]. Rank thus became the first paid member of the psychoanalytic movement, and Freud's "right-hand man" for almost 20 years. Freud considered Rank, with whom he was more intimate intellectually than his own sons, to be the most brilliant of his Viennese disciples.  

In 1905, at the age of 21, Otto Rank presented Freud with a short manuscript on the artist, a study that so impressed Freud he invited Rank to become Secretary of the emerging [[Vienna Psychoanalytic Society]]. Rank thus became the first paid member of the psychoanalytic movement, and Freud's "right-hand man" for almost 20 years. Freud considered Rank, with whom he was more intimate intellectually than his own sons, to be the most brilliant of his Viennese disciples.  

   

   

Rank was one of Freud's six collaborators brought together in a secret "committee" or "ring" to defend the psychoanalytic mainstream as disputes with [[Alfred Adler|Adler]] and then [[Carl Jung|Jung]] developed. Rank was the most prolific author in the "ring" besides Freud himself, extending [[psychoanalytic theory]] to the study of [[legend]], [[mythology|myth]], [[art]], and other works of [[creativity]]. He worked closely with Freud, contributing two chapters on myth and legend to later editions of ''The Interpretation of Dreams.'' Rank's name appeared underneath Freud's on the title page of Freud's greatest work for many years. Between 1915 and 1918, Rank served as Secretary of the [[International Psychoanalytical Association]] which Freud had founded in 1910. Everyone in the small psychoanalytic world understood how much Freud respected Rank and his prolific creativity in expanding psychoanalytic theory.  

Rank was one of Freud's six collaborators brought together in a secret "committee" or "ring" to defend the psychoanalytic mainstream as disputes with [[Alfred Adler|Adler]] and then [[Carl Jung|Jung]] developed. Rank was the most prolific author in the "ring" besides Freud himself, extending [[psychoanalytic theory]] to the study of [[legend]], [[mythology|myth]], art, and other works of [[creativity]]. He worked closely with Freud, contributing two chapters on myth and legend to later editions of ''The Interpretation of Dreams.'' Rank's name appeared underneath Freud's on the title page of Freud's greatest work for many years. Between 1915 and 1918, Rank served as Secretary of the [[International Psychoanalytical Association]] which Freud had founded in 1910. Everyone in the small psychoanalytic world understood how much Freud respected Rank and his prolific creativity in expanding psychoanalytic theory.  

In 1924, Rank published ''Das Trauma der Geburt'' (translated into English as ''The Trauma of Birth'' in 1929), exploring how art, myth, religion, philosophy and therapy were illuminated by [[separation anxiety]] in the “phase before the development of the Oedipus complex” (p. 216). But there was no such phase in Freud’s theories. The [[Oedipus complex]], Freud explained tirelessly, was the nucleus of the [[neurosis]] and the foundational source of all art, myth, religion, philosophy, therapy – indeed of all human culture and civilization. It was the first time that anyone in the inner circle had dared to suggest that the Oedipus complex might not be the supreme causal factor in psychoanalysis. Rank was the first to use the term “pre-Oedipal” in a public psychoanalytic forum in 1925 (Rank, 1996, p. 43). In a 1930 self-analysis of his own writings, Rank observes that "the pre-Oedipal super-ego has since been overemphasized by [[Melanie Klein]], without any reference to me" (ibid., p. 149n). In the next edition of the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]],'' Rank will be credited with coining the term "pre-Oedipal", which was previously mistakenly thought to have been introduced by Freud or Klein.  

In 1924, Rank published ''Das Trauma der Geburt'' (translated into English as ''The Trauma of Birth'' in 1929), exploring how art, myth, religion, philosophy and therapy were illuminated by [[separation anxiety]] in the “phase before the development of the Oedipus complex” (p. 216). But there was no such phase in Freud’s theories. The [[Oedipus complex]], Freud explained tirelessly, was the nucleus of the [[neurosis]] and the foundational source of all art, myth, religion, philosophy, therapy – indeed of all human culture and civilization. It was the first time that anyone in the inner circle had dared to suggest that the Oedipus complex might not be the supreme causal factor in psychoanalysis. Rank was the first to use the term “pre-Oedipal” in a public psychoanalytic forum in 1925 (Rank, 1996, p. 43). In a 1930 self-analysis of his own writings, Rank observes that "the pre-Oedipal super-ego has since been overemphasized by [[Melanie Klein]], without any reference to me" (ibid., p. 149n). In the next edition of the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]],'' Rank will be credited with coining the term "pre-Oedipal", which was previously mistakenly thought to have been introduced by Freud or Klein.  

== Post-Vienna life and work ==

== Post-Vienna life and work ==

In May 1926, having made emotional relationship in the "here-and-now" central to his practice of psychotherapy, Rank moved to Paris where he became a psychotherapist for artists such as [[Henry Miller]] and [[Anaïs Nin]] and lectured at the [[Sorbonne]] (Lieberman, 1985).  

In May 1926, having made emotional relationship in the "here-and-now" central to his practice of psychotherapy, Rank moved to Paris where he became a psychotherapist for artists such as [[Henry Miller]] and [[Anaïs Nin]] and lectured at the Sorbonne (Lieberman, 1985).  

According to Rank, all emotional life is grounded in the present. In ''Will Therapy,'' published in German in 1929-31, Rank uses the term “here and now” for the first time in the psychotherapeutic literature: “Freud made the repression historical, that is, misplaced it into the childhood of the individual and then wanted to release it from there, while as a matter of fact the same tendency is working here and now” (Rank, 1929–31, p. 39). Instead of the word ''Verdrängung'' (repression), which laid stress on unconscious repression of the past, Rank preferred to use the word ''Verleugnung'' (denial), which focused instead on the emotional will to remain ill in the present: “The neurotic lives too much in the past [and] to that extent he actually does not live. He suffers … because he clings to [the past], wants to cling to it, in order to protect himself from experience [''Erlebnis''], the emotional surrender to the present” (Rank, 1929–31, p. 27).  

According to Rank, all emotional life is grounded in the present. In ''Will Therapy,'' published in German in 1929-31, Rank uses the term “here and now” for the first time in the psychotherapeutic literature: “Freud made the repression historical, that is, misplaced it into the childhood of the individual and then wanted to release it from there, while as a matter of fact the same tendency is working here and now” (Rank, 1929–31, p. 39). Instead of the word ''Verdrängung'' (repression), which laid stress on unconscious repression of the past, Rank preferred to use the word ''Verleugnung'' (denial), which focused instead on the emotional will to remain ill in the present: “The neurotic lives too much in the past [and] to that extent he actually does not live. He suffers … because he clings to [the past], wants to cling to it, in order to protect himself from experience [''Erlebnis''], the emotional surrender to the present” (Rank, 1929–31, p. 27).