2011 Reprint of 1950 Translation by William Turner. Full facsimile
of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition
Software. Recommended, both as a fascinating and little-known
document in the history of psychology and as a provocative reading
of the history of psychology. (Religious Studies Review). Will
interest many students of the history of psychoanalysis... Rank's
conclusions contribute to present-day controversies about the
status of psychoanalysis as a science. (Psychiatric Times ) The
first complete English translation of a work that Rank published in
1930. It draws on anthropology, sociology, mythology, religion,
philosophy, history, and literature to chart the development of the
human psyche... The book's antimaterialistic passion makes it a
compelling counterpoint to the stern biology of our own age, and
the bounds it sets to what psychoanalysis can claim are justly
drawn. (Wilson Quarterly ) Unquestionably Rank's most important
work... This new translation is an effort to create a Rank for our
millennium... and it] reads elegantly and comfortably in English...
The argument is complex and intricate, consisting of a long
historical/ethnographic sweep that takes us from a 'primitive'
state, via animism through the Christian or sexual era to the
scientific era and modern development of psychology... Along the
way we find traces of many of Rank's other brilliant psychological
surveys -- the double, Don Juan, heroes' birth myths, the theme of
incest -- woven into this massive canvas and viewed on the largest
scale... Throughout this book, the grand tapestry is set with some
remarkable gems of observation. (Naomi Segal Psychoanalysis and
History ) This is the first complete translation of Otto Rank's
fascinating text on the nature and history of the concept of the
Soul and Will in the psychological history of humankind... a tour
de force in vigour, scope and application to many contemporary
issues such as sexual behaviors, the nature of dreaming, incest
prohibitions and narcissism, to name but a few. (L.R. Edgar Journal
of the Royal Anthropological Society ) In his last years, Otto Rank
turned his lifetime of thought and learning toward two of the most
difficult topics in human history: religion and the soul. The
result was this now-classic work, available in this new, very
accessible English translation. Unlike many other intellectuals of
the twentieth century, Rank maintains a place for the soul rather
than dismissing it as a fantasy. The soul and the beliefs about it,
he argues, set forth the foundation for psychology, with its
complex analyses of consciousness, self-consciousness, and
personality. Rank's commentary is not limited to beliefs about
individual souls but includes ideas about group souls, sometimes
encompassing nations or generations. Rank suggests that it is in
expression of group beliefs that the idea of the soul attains its
greatest power. What is the soul? Otto Rank treats it as a
universal and essential belief for individuals and their societies,
constant in function but evolving in form through millennia. To
borrow a post-Rankian metaphor, the soul was created in the big
bang of irresistible psychological force colliding with immutable
biological fact-our will to live forever against death. The
collision creates a spark in our individual and social
consciousness which through history has become both consolation and
inspiration: the immortal soul. All ideologies reflect this
phenomenon and modify its expression to suit the era. Otto Rank
wrote before the atom bomb or television, both of which alter our
perception of death without changing the fact. Rank's introduction
of the soul as an essential part of contemporary psychology helps
explain a number of perplexing, irrational phenomena in
contemporary life.
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