Annotated Bibliography of Selected Writings on Rank

Abstract A dazzling thinker, Otto Rank (1884-1939) was a polymath whose humanistic and existential insights remain relevant today. His interdisciplinary thought influenced a remarkable array of artists, writers, philosophers, social workers, therapists, art and cultural critics, literary scholars, psychologists, and others. Interest in Rank increased after the publication of The Denial of Death (1973) and Escape from Evil (1975) by cultural anthropologist and philosopher Ernest Becker, who brought Rank back to center stage in the human and social sciences. Published in 1914, Rank’s The Double continues to attract literary and cultural critics, while Art and Artist, published in 1932, is widely regarded as Rank’s magnum opus. Appendix B is an annotated bibliography of the most significant writings on Rank since 1953, when social worker Fay Karpf published the first book on Rank, up to the present. Misconceptions about Rank in the writings of psychoanalysts are identified and corrected.