Rank, Otto

Otto Rank was born on April 22, 1884 in Vienna into a poor Jewish family, the youngest of two sons. His family did not have any special spiritual claims. His father authoritarianly directed his education, believing that young Otto was to become a mechanical engineer. After graduating from a vocational school with a matriculation certificate, Rank worked in a workshop. At this time, he independently studied psychology , graduated from the Vienna School of Art, showing a special interest in mythology and literature . He took the name of Dr. Rank from the play “ Doll House ” by G. Ibsen .

In 1906, he met Sigmund Freud , introducing him a letter of recommendation from Alfred Adler , who was the Rosenfeld family doctor, and manuscripts of three works, one of which formed the basis of the book “ The Artist ” published in 1907 . Freud praised the manuscripts, seeing in a young man the ability to engage in psychoanalysis. “... a graduate of a vocational school presented us with a manuscript that gave an exceptional understanding of the subject. We persuaded him to continue his gymnasium education, to attend a university and devote himself to the non-medical application of psychoanalysis ... ”Freud later recalled. As a result, Otto Rank graduated from the University of Vienna and in 1912 received a Ph.D.

Between Freud and Rank, a deep personal friendship developed over time; Freud treated him like his son. In 1912, Rank became secretary of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, and since 1913 was a member of the secret committee. From 1919 to 1924 he headed the publishing house, in which the publication of psychoanalytic works was carried out.

Becoming the first psychoanalyst without a medical education, O. Rank began to receive patients by setting up a reception room in the same house where his apartment was. Over the years, he was engaged in research, was in charge of the administrative and financial affairs of the psychoanalytic community, assisted Freud in organizational matters, was vice president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Community.

In the early 20s, Rank expressed a number of ideas that predetermined his withdrawal from the members of the secret committee and the subsequent break with Freud. In 1924 , at the invitation of the president of the New York Psychoanalytic Society, he traveled to the United States , where for several months he presented new ideas to American psychoanalysts, some of which began to undergo a short-term analysis of him. In the same 1924, together with Sandor Ferenczi, he published the work “Development of Psychoanalysis”.

Returning to Vienna, O. Rank resigned as chief editor of a psychoanalytic magazine. In 1929, Rank resigned, effectively predetermining the final break with Sigmund Freud. In the early 30s O. Rank worked as a psychoanalyst in Paris .

In 1935, Otto Rank moved to the United States , where he was engaged in teaching and therapeutic activities, accompanied by the promotion of new psychoanalytic ideas.

On October 31, 1939, Otto Rank died in New York.

O. Rank was one of the first psychoanalysts who paid special attention to the use of the psychoanalytic method of research in the study of art , religion , poetry , and literature . In the work “ The Myth of the Birth of a Hero ”, O. Rank put forward a position according to which the discovery of the source of the meaningful identity of myths of all times and peoples is possible only on the basis of their psychological analysis.

O. Rank considered the ability to imagine as a universal phenomenon, characteristic not only of man, but of humanity as a whole. Turning to the mythological material of various legends , including myths about the birth of Sargon , Moses , Oedipus , Paris , Telephus , Perseus , Gilgamesh , Cyrus , Tristan , Romulus , Hercules , Jesus , Siegfried and Lohengrin , O. Rank revealed a number of uniform features that can serve basis for building a standard legend. In all myths, the hero has an attitude towards his parents that is unhealthy. O. Rank believed that such a deviation is due to something such that is reflected in the character of the hero himself.

Freud's ideas expressed in his Family Neurotic novel were further developed by Rank. O. Rank noted that the motives of children abandoned and raised by other parents are contained in many myths and tales. According to Rank, myths about heroes and family novels include the same tendency related to the hero’s desire to get rid of his parents and a similar desire present in the child’s imagination.

In the process of psychological explanation of the meaning of the myth of the birth of a hero, O. Rank tried to identify the connection of the myth with some mental illnesses. In particular, he believed that, in their main features, myths about heroes largely correspond to the manic ideas of psychotics suffering from delusions of persecution or greatness . Based on this understanding, he revealed a close connection between the myth of the hero and structural mania among paranoid people , and also described the myth as a paranoid structure.

Otto Rank believed that the trauma of birth was the first source of fear and anxiety . O. Rank proceeded from the fact that the moment a child was born and separated from his mother is a traumatic event in a person’s life. The desire to return to the womb of the mother, to restore the previous position is directly related to the trauma of birth.

O. Rank believed that neurosis arises from an intrapsychic conflict between a person’s desire to return to the initial state of prenatal harmony and a memory of the horror of birth.

- fear of castration began to be considered in terms of the symbolic expression of primary trauma (childbirth) and secondary trauma (weaning a child from the mother’s breast);

- Oedipus complex - from the point of view of human attempts to return to the womb (transfer of intrauterine pleasure to the genitals charged with anxiety);

- fear of incest and the corresponding prohibitions - as that which opposes fantasies of returning to the uterus.

Speaking about psychoanalytic therapy, O. Rank believed that in its final phase the healing process is a kind of new birth for the patient. In the unconscious, the healing process is correlated with the symbolism of birth, and the patient can perceive himself as a newborn, that is, a spiritual child of the analyst. The patient's fantasy of rebirth is a repetition in the analysis of his own birth. Thus, the analysis can be seen as the successful completion of a previously unsuccessful attempt for a patient to overcome a birth trauma.

Currently, Rank's ideas have been developed in the writings of Stanislav Grof ( USA ), who conducted experiments using hallucinogens ( LSD ) and discovered traces of memories of the fetus staying in the womb of the mother and childbirth (the so-called perinatal matrices ).

• Rank Oh . The myth of the birth of a hero. - M .: “Refl beech”, “Wackler”, 1997.
• Rank Oh . Birth trauma and its significance for psychoanalysis. - M .: “Kogito-Center”, 2009.
• Rank Oh . Report of the first private Psychoanalytic Meeting in Salzburg on April 27, 1908. - Izhevsk: ERGO, 2012.
• Rank O. Double. - Scythia-print, 2017 .-- ISBN 978-5-98620-249-5 .
• Ferenczi S., Rank O. The goals of the development of psychoanalysis. - ERGO, 2016 .-- ISBN 978-5-98904-231-9 .

• Leibin V. Postclassical psychoanalysis. Encyclopedia. - M .: AST, 2008.
• Pathopsychology. Psychoanalytic approach. (Edited by J. Bergeret ). - M .: Aspect Press, 2008.

• V.I. Ovcharenko. Otto Rank (biography)