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Otto Rank Papers

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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center [Contact Us]3401 Market Street, Suite 210, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

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Dr. Otto Rank, an internationally known psychologist, was born in Vienna in 1884. Rank attended the University of Vienna where he graduated with a Ph.D. He was considered a brilliant student of Dr. Sigmund Freud. From 1912 to 1924 Rank edited two leading journals of psycho-analysis, Imago and International Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse. He served as founding director of the International Psychoanalytic Institute from 1919 to 1924. Throughout this time he remained closely affiliated with Freud. In 1925 Rank broke from Freud's emphasis on the conflict within the unconscious to take a more radical approach. Rank was concerned with the importance of the conscious. In 1926 Rank moved to Paris, and in 1936, after yearly visits to lecture, he moved to the United States.

Some of his early works included The Trauma of Birth, Don Juan (concerned with the study of split personalities), and The Will to Happiness. Art and education were of interest to Rank, and these interests were reflected in his publications Art and Artists (1932) and Modern Education (1932). Truth and Reality and Will Therapy, both published in 1936, were among his later works. His academic career included lecturing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social and Health Work, 1929-1939 and at the Graduate School for Jewish Social Work in New York, 1934-1939.

Otto Rank married Estelle Buel; they had a daughter Helene Rank

The papers of Otto Rank are predominantly composed of his writings, 1912-1936. Given his departure from Freud's theories, there is a fair representation of Rank's development as a psycho-analyst. The focus of this collection centers around his early study of dreams as well as on mythology and literature. There are translations of his later works, specifically Truth and Reality and The Technique of Psycho-Analysis. The writings are a mix of published and manuscript items, and in many cases the collection contains both for some topics. For the most part the material is in English (or there are also translations). There are, however, some works in German.

No Subnote Content

Transferred from Van Pelt Special Collections, April 1992.

Publisher
University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center
Finding Aid Author
Theresa R. Snyder
Finding Aid Date
1992
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Psycho-Analysis, n.d. (in French and English).
Box 1 Folder 1
A Case of Lapse Memory, 1913.
Box 1 Folder 2
Lectures.
Box 1 Folder 3

A Contribution on Infantile Sexuality, 1913.
Box 1 Folder 4
Ein Determinister fall von finden, n.d.
Box 1 Folder 5
Aktuelle Sexualregungen als Traumanlässe, 1912.
Box 1 Folder 6
Birth-Deliverance Phantasy in Dreams and Myth, 1914.
Box 1 Folder 7
Dreams and Myth.
Box 1 Folder 8
Dreams and Poetry, 1924.
Box 1 Folder 9
Felhandlung und Traum, 1915.
Box 1 Folder 10
A Form of Oedipus dream, 1911-1913.
Box 1 Folder 11
A Fictitious Dream.
Box 1 Folder 12
Symbol stratification in Awakening, 1912.
Box 1 Folder 13
Ein Traum, der sich selbstdeutet.
Box 1 Folder 14
Toothache dreams.
Box 1 Folder 15
Miscellaneous.
Box 1 Folder 16
Losing as Symptomatic Action.
Box 1 Folder 17
Analysis of Goethe's Zanberting.
Box 1 Folder 18
Homer, 1917.
Box 1 Folder 19
Don Juan in Literature and Tradition.
Box 1 Folder 20
Collected Studies on Myths, 1912-1914.
Box 1 Folder 21
Collected Studies on Myths, 1912-1914.
Box 1 Folder 22
Mythologie.
Box 1 Folder 23
The Theme of the Haunted Man in Literature and Folklore.
Box 1 Folder 24
A Contribution to Narcissism (Homosexuality).
Box 1 Folder 25
Outlines of a Genetic Psychology, 1927-1928.
Box 1 Folder 26
Psychic Potency.
Box 1 Folder 27
Psychology and Belief in the Soul, 1936.
Box 1 Folder 28
Slips of Everyday Life, 1915.
Box 1 Folder 29
Some Confirmations of the Saving-Phantasy.
Box 1 Folder 30
The Technique of Psycho-Analysis, v.1.
Box 1 Folder 31
The Technique of Psycho-Analysis, v. 2.
Box 1 Folder 32
The Technique of Psycho-Analysis, v. 2.
Box 1 Folder 33
The Technique of Psycho-Analysis, v. 3.
Box 1 Folder 34
The Technique of Psycho-Analysis, v. 3.
Box 1 Folder 35
Truth and Reality.
Box 1 Folder 36
Truth and Reality.
Box 1 Folder 37

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