Books by Otto Rank

The Myth of the Birth of the Hero A Psychological Exploration of Myth

by Otto Rank

First published in German in 1909, Otto Rank's original The Myth of the Birth of the Hero offered psychoanalytical interpretations of mythological stories as a means of understanding the human psyche. Like his mentor Sigmund Freud, Rank compared the myths of such figures as Oedipus, Moses, and Sargon with common dreams, seeing in both a symbolic fulfillment of repressed desire. In a new edition published thirteen years after the original, Rank doubled the size of his seminal work, incorporating new discoveries in psychoanalysis, mythology, and ethnology.

This expanded and updated edition has been eloquently translated by Gregory C. Richter and E. James Lieberman and includes an introductory essay by Robert A. Segal as well as Otto Rank's 1914 essay "The Play in Hamlet."

Otto Rank (1884–1939), one of the most important figures in psychoanalysis, was the author of The Incest Theme in Literature and Legend: Fundamentals of a Psychology of Literary Creation and Psychology and the Soul: A Study of the Origin, Conceptual Evolution, and Nature of the Soul. Gregory C. Richter, PhD, is a professor of German and linguistics at Truman State University. E. James Lieberman, MD, is professor emeritus of clinical psychiatry and behavioral sciences at George Washington University. Robert A. Segal, PhD, is the Sixth Century Chair in Religious Studies at the University of Aberdeen.

The Double: A Psychoanalytic Study

by Otto Rank

Otto Rank (1884-1939) the early disciple and colleague of Freud, who later broke with him and developed his own psychoanalytic school, was a many-sided man whose genius found expression beyond the strictly psychoanalytic field in contributions to the criticism of art and literature, and the history of myth and religion.The Double, inspired partially by H.H. Ewer's silent film classic 'The Student of Prague', is primarily a study of the Doppelganger theme as it appears in European and American literature, exemplified in the works by such authors as Goethe, Hoffman, Dostoevsky and Wilde. By integrating psychoanalytic concepts with insights from poetry and myth, the investigation is extended to examine issues at the core of human existence: identity, narcissism, the relation of past to present, and the fear of death.In his book 'Acts of Will: The Life and Work of Otto Rank', Rank's biographer E. J. Lieberman has described The Double as a "seminal Work on the relation of shadow, reflection, ghost and twin to the idea of soul and immortality".

The Development of Psycho-Analysis

by Otto Rank, Sándor Ferenczi

2012 Reprint of 1925 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. In this book, conceived in 1922 and published in 1924, Sándor Ferenczi and Otto Rank were reacting against the practical fallout (transference and resistances in psychoanalytic treatment) from Freud's ideas on repetition compulsion and analysis of the ego. This book introduced ideas and controversies that were taken up by later authors (Michael Balint, Donald W. Winnicott, Harold F. Searles, Jacques Lacan): the therapeutic use of object relations and regression; the analyst's "discretion" (caution in interpretation); the analyst's resistances and the role of countertransference; interest in training for physicians; and the risks inherent in "training" analysis.