Promotional Information

James Lieberman and Robert Kramer are among the most distinguished authorities on Otto Rank. Instead of producing a critical edition of the Freud-Rank letters, as would have been commonplace, they have used the letters to reconstruct the early 'life' of the psychoanalytic movement. A gem of a book. -- Robert A. Segal, author of Myth: A Very Short Introduction Publication of the Rank-Freud correspondence in this important book fills a major gap in our knowledge and understanding of the early years of psychoanalysis and of Rank himself. Lieberman and Kramer have nicely interleaved the surviving letters with biographical material on Rank, relevant excerpts from Freud's letters to others, and description of the historical context, including World War I and the difficult years that followed. -- David G. Winter, University of Michigan

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
1. The Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, 1906–1910
2. Alfred Adler Departs, 1911
3. Judging Jung, 1912–1913
4. The Committee, 1913–1914
5. War, 1914
6. Limbo, 1915–1916
7. Krakow, 1916–1918
8. Active Therapy and Armistice, 1918
9. Eros Meets Thanatos, 1919 and 1920
10. Rising Tension, 1921
11. Favorite Son, January to July 1922
12. Fratricide, August to December 1922
13. Birth of the Mother, January to June 1923
14. Under the Knife, June to December 1923
15. Crisis, January to April 1924
16. New York, May to October 1924
17. About-face, October to December 1924
18. Reunion and Ending, 1925–1926
19. Willing, Feeling, Living, 1926–1939
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Appendix
a. Minor Letters
b. A Precocious Dream Analysis
c. Major Figures in the Freud-Rank Correspondence
d. Family Chart of Sigmund Freud in 1905
e. Otto Rank Family Tree
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

E. James Lieberman, M.D., is a clinical professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the George Washington University School of Medicine. He has written, edited, and translated a number of books, including two by Otto Rank Psychology and the Soul and The Myth of the Birth of the Hero, both published by Johns Hopkins. Robert Kramer, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized authority on action learning and consults on leadership development worldwide. He is the editor of A Psychology of Difference: The American Lectures of Otto Rank.

Reviews

For those well versed in the world of psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis, for those who are students of Freud, and for those who know the historical players in this game, The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank is a wonderful text filled with excellent research and understanding of the growth and the beginning of the demise of Freudian analysis. It is comprehensive, academic, and a must for those are historians of the era, historians of psychoanalysis, or those simply curious about the men who started a revolution in mental health. New York Journal of Books Doctors sometimes like to be perceived as Olympian gods, but these letters remind us how often gods are venal, petty, jealous and spiteful. The excellent book, The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank: Inside Psychoanalysis, focuses on the early career of Otto Rank, as one of Freud's most gifted disciples. -- Michael Dirda Washington Post This edited collection provides a critical balance to other published accounts of these men and the early years of the psychoanalytic movement... should be essential reading for scholars and specialists familiar with the major ideas and players of early psychoanalysis. Library Journal The book offers much more than a compilation of letters but provides in-depth contextual analysis and refreshingly candid and human perspectives on these men in the early days of the important theory. Reference and Research Book News The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank is an excellent scholarly resource and makes a substantive contribution by shedding light on Rank and the psychoanalytic movement. -- Simon Boag PsycCRITIQUES A compelling story, and one well worth the study required by a careful reading of this book. -- Clifford Cunningham Suns News Corporation For anyone at all interested in the history of the psychoanalytic movement, this 1906-25 exchange of letters, translated here from German, between Freud and his henchman-the 28-years-younger Rank-is a delightful treasure trove... Suited to a broad audience, the book is not at all obscure. A source on which readers will continue to draw. Choice There is... something eminently refreshing about a straightforward book like The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank: Inside Psychoanalysis. -- Marcus M. Silverman Modern Psychoanalysis An important exchange of letters. It is very gratifying that it finally has appeared. -- Anna Bentinck von Schoonheten Luzifer-Amor