Rank, Otto (1884-1939)

Austrian psychoanalyst. His theory of the birth-trauma responsible for all psychic anxiety, expressed in Das Trauma der Geburt/The Trauma of Birth (1924), led to Rank's expulsion from the orthodox psychoanalytical movement. He left Vienna for Paris, France, in 1926, and later, in 1934, settled in the USA. Many of his works display his interest in art and mythology. They include Der Kunstler/The Artist (1907), Der Mythus von der Geburt des Helden/The Myth of the Birth of the Hero (1909), and Das Inzest-Motiv in Dichtung und Saga/The Incest Motif in Poetry and Legend (1912). Rank was born in Vienna, Austria.