Otto Rank > Quotes

“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”
― Otto Rank

“The struggle of the artist against the art-ideology, against the creative impulse and even against his own work also shows itself in his attitude towards success and fame; these two phenomena are but an extension, socially, of the process which began subjectively with the vocation and creation of the personal ego to be an artist. In this entire creative process, which begins with self-nomination as artist and ends in the fame of posterity, two fundamental tendencies — one might almost say, two personalities of the individual — are in continual conflict throughout: one wants to eternalize itself in artistic creation, the other in ordinary life — in brief, immortal man vs. the immortal soul of man.”
― Otto Rank, Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality Development

“In the psychical sphere there are no facts, but only interpretations of them.”
― Otto Rank

“Some refuse the loan of life to avoid the debt of death.”
― Otto Rank, Will Therapy/Truth and Reality

“It seems that life, in order to maintain itself, must revolt every so often against man's ceaseless attempts to master its irrational forces with his mind.”
― Otto Rank, Beyond Psychology

“every human being is...equally unfree, that is, we...create out of freedom, a prison...”
― Otto Rank

“In the religious myths, the creative will appears personified in God, and man already feels himself guilty when he assumes himself to be like God, that is, to ascribe this will to himself. In the heroic myths on the contrary, man appears as himself, creative and guilt for his suffering and fall is ascribed to God, that is, to his own will. Both are only extreme reaction phenomena of man wavering between his Godlikeness and his nothingness, whose will is awakened to the knowledge of its power and whose consciousness is aroused to terror before it.”
― Otto Rank, Truth and Reality

“Neurosis is the result of willing the spontaneous.”
― Otto Rank, Beyond Psychology

“Nothing new is ever discovered as long as it is possible to copy -Braun (1864)”
― Otto Rank, The Myth of the Birth of the Hero and Other Writings

“Myths, originally at least, are structures of the human faculty of imagination, which at some time were projected for certain reasons upon the heavens, and may be secondarily transferred to the heavenly bodies, with their enigmatical phenomena. [...] The origin of these figures was possibly psychic in character, and they were subsequently made the basis of the almanac and firmament calculations, precisely on account of this significance.”
― Otto Rank, The Myth of the Birth of the Hero: A Psychological Exploration of Myth

“...for the time being I gave up writing-there is already too much truth in the world-an overproduction which apparently cannot be consumed!”
― Otto Rank

“The standard saga itself may be formulated according to the following outline: The hero is the child of most distinguished parents, usually the son of a king. His origin is preceded by difficulties, such as continence, or prolonged barrenness, or secret intercourse of the parents due to external prohibition or obstacles. During or before the pregnancy, there is a prophecy, in the form of a dream or oracle, cautioning against his birth, and usually threatening danger to the father (or his representative). As a rule, he is surrendered to the water, in a box. He is then saved by animals, or by lowly people (shepherds), and is suckled by a female animal or by an humble woman. After he has grown up, he finds his distinguished parents, in a highly versatile fashion. He takes his revenge on his father, on the one hand, and is acknowledged, on the other. Finally he achieves rank and honors.”
― Otto Rank, The Myth of the Birth of the Hero

“Already several prophecies of ours have applied to insignificant trifles, and what rests upon dreams is apt to be vain. (The Circle of Myths: Cyrus)”
― Otto Rank, The Myth of the Birth of the Hero: A Psychological Exploration of Myth

“[...] his fate stirs us only because it might have been our own fate ; because the oracle has cursed us prior to our birth, as it did him, [...] our dreams convince us of this truth. (Dream Interpretation: Edipus, by. Freud)”
― Otto Rank, The Myth of the Birth of the Hero: A Psychological Exploration of Myth