Otto Rank, a Philosopher and His Theories

Otto Rank’s realization of Life and Death

Many things in life take place in making us into who each of us are. Our past experiences, how we perceive things, and even how our parents raise us while we are growing up, are all believed to take a part of being an individual person. Otto Rank brought the concepts of life, and death to our attention which raises more questions about how we work as humans. Does fear take a part of making you who you are? Or does it deprive you of who you have the chance of becoming? Otto Rank did his best to explain how we, as humans actually perceive life, and death, and how fear can counteract our views, and actions. He searched for a way for humans to find out how to completely balance our lives to keep us satisfied as individuals, and in multiple different relationships.

Otto Rank was born April 22, 1884 in Vinenna, Austrua-Hungary. His birth name was actually Otto Rosenfeld. His family was poor while he was growing up. Otto Rank (1998) claims that Rank went to a trade school growing up. He worked in a machine shop during the day, and at night worked on his studies, and writing. He found studying legends, mythology, art, and human creativity extremely interesting. He looked up to Freud, and became Freud’s assistant for 20 years. Freud actually helped Otto get into the University of Vienna. Which is where he graduated in 1912, and received his doctorate in philosophy. Otto published The Trauma of Birth in 1924, which was the same year he visited America. Otto is mainly recognized for his way of client-centered therapy, and his lectures. He also was noticed for arguing that people have life and death instincts and the fears that fallow those instincts. He died when he was only 55 years ...

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...ed at that group, you simply become that group and nothing else. Which leads us back to the first corner of wanting to stay an individual, your life instinct corner. Otto worked hard to try and help others find their happy medium of life and death. Realizing that every instinct we have gives us a form of fear, which can be a positive thing if we are able to balance out our fears with our instincts, but yet can still deprive us of success if we don’t learn how to keep ourselves balanced. Its important to be yourself, and fallow your own dreams, but also contribute to the world, and keep healthy relationships with others. References

Works Cited

Otto Rank. (1998). Encyclopedia of World Biography

Rank, Otto. 1968. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Retrieved February 16, 2014 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3045001038.html