Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, Vol 46(1), Feb 2026, 17-38; doi:10.1037/teo0000311
Otto Rank is an innovative and holistic thinker who ventured beyond subject–object division, reductionism, mechanism, and classical notions of causality in his understanding of human becoming and therapeutic relationship. Rank has influenced object–relational; interpersonal, experiential; and time-limited approaches, while his will psychology and theory of creativity are unique contributions to modern psychotherapy (Kramer, 2019; Merkur, 2010; Mitchell & Black, 1995; O’Dowd, 1986; Rudnytsky, 2018; W. Wadlington, 2012). There are links to be drawn between today’s relational psychoanalysis and Rank’s early (pre)ontological work, where Rank’s ideas underlie developments in the direction of some of Wilfred Bion’s1 and Donald Winnicott’s conceptions, as well as later explorations of betweenness and thirdness (Aguayo, 2013; Ekenstierna, 2024; Ogden, 2019; Winnicott, 1984). More so, Rank can be considered a formative force behind existential–humanistic psychology in the United States (deCarvalho, 1999; Kramer, 2019; Lieberman, 1985; Menaker, 1982; Schneider, 2022). Jessie Taft, Rollo May, Carl Rogers, Irvin Yalom, and Stanislav Grof are among those who bodied forth modern (re)interpretations and real-world applications of his framework. In this article, I draw on Rank’s transitional (1924–1926) and post-Freudian eras (1926–1939). I consider the existential and metaphysical roots of Rank’s psychology in a larger context of meaning and expand on what such notions implicate for practice. Areas of focus include Rank’s relational and experiential understanding of therapy, as well as his embodied and cosmic notion of (un)conscious process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)