Download Otto Rank: His Transpersonal Reflections and Contributions to Psychology and more Study notes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity!
WILLIN THE PSYCHOLOGY
OF OTTO RANK:
A TRANSPERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
Jon Amundson Calgary,A lberta, Canada
Experience has taught, however, that as the therapist can only heal in his own way, the patient can only become well in his own way, that is, whenever and however he wills, which moreover is already clear through his decision to take treatment and often enough through his ending of it. Otto Rank in Will Therapy
Current theory and practice in transpersonal psychology are based upon a variety of historical and contemporary per- spectives-humanistic (Sutich, 1969), religious-spiritual (Tart, 1969),csoteric, scientific and socio-cultural (Boucouvalas, 1980). Similar perspectives can also be found in the work of the early pioneers of modern psychology, primarily in the field of psychoanalysis. In an attempt to formulate comprehensive statements about human experience in the largest sense, the early contributors had to grapple with issues which today would be considered transpersonal in nature. Otto Rank rep- resents one of those early psychoanalytic theoreticians whose transpersonal reflections are perhaps second only to those of Carl Jung in scope and importance.
Rank remains one of the most unknown, and little read, of the early Freudians. Often described as brilliant yet neglected, Rank is in part responsible for his own anonymity. Excused by his biographer (Taft, 1958) as moving too quickly, Rank's attempts at setting forth his ideas are often rambling, ponder-
I am grateful to Dr. T, Alan Parry for his kind assistance in the preparation of this paper.
scope of Rank's transpersonal
reflections
The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1981, Vol. 13, No.2 113
early life history
estrangement from Freud
post -Freudian years
ous and even contradictory. He is best remembered in the minds of the psychological public for his contribution of the birth trauma, yet he also made significant contributions in other areas which have only in recent years been re-introduced (Becker, 1973; Assagioli, 1975; Sward, 1980). Rank's bril- liance, his depth and his vast knowledge and interest in art, literature and mythology, endeared him to Freud. At the age of 19, he joined the Vienna group, serving as its secretary while pursuing a doctoral degree in the humanities under the men- torship of Freud. Freud realized that, for psychoanalysis to have maximum impact, it needed an active relationship with larger historical and cultural perspectives. The "new science" should not merely be a medical specialty hut a comprehensive statement on the human condition in every sense. Rank, as the chosen carrier of this responsibility, pursued his task with passion; he completed his dissertation, the first with a psy- choanalytic orientation on the Lohengrin Saga, and by 25 had written one of the minor classics of twentieth-century thought: The Myth oJthe Birth of the Hero (Rank, 1970).In this essay he intertwines psychoanalytic theory with the great myths of heroes, gods and saviors. His bent for the exceptional, the "artist," is revealed as he discussescomparative religious beliefs from various cultures.
Rank had been witness to the schisms which eventually sep- arated Freud first from Adler and later from lung. By the end of the first World War, Rank, too, found himself more and more estranged-initially from rigid Freudian doctrine, and eventually from Freud himself. His book, The Trauma of Birth (Rank, 1973), is believed to have been an honest attempt to broaden general psychoanalytic theory. Freud and other orthodox psychoanalysts, however, saw it not as a work pro- ceedingfrom present theory, but as an attempt to supplant their model. This resulted in a period of separation which was no doubt extremely painful for Rank. In their father-son rela- tionship, Freud had once considered naming Rank guardian of his children's education. But what Rank had perceived as a work proceeding from the base of psychoanalytic theory, Freud took as a direct affront and of this said, "I have forgiven him for the last time."
Rank went on to make a number of significant contributions independently, but never achieved the level of integration or clarity in his work which would lend it to popular exposition. He spent his post-Freudian years in Paris, New York, and just prior to his death had made plans to relocate to California where his biographer, Jessie Taft, felt he would have been able to edit and finalize his life work. His last book, Beyond Psy- chology, published incomplete and posthumously, supports
114 The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1981, Vol. 13, No.
the "will-to-health"
masculine ideology and feminine psychology
the historical basisof psychological theory
to-health" (Sahakian, 1973).According to Rank, it is the will to health which brings a client to therapy. Through distress and relief the will-to-health operates at a conscious and uncon- scious level to evoke behaviors and resources necessary to ac- tively engage the world in a complete and willful fashion. At a time when psychic determinism was in vogue, this affirmation of inner initiative and potential was more than bold.
Rank's interest in the exceptional stood in juxtaposition to the medical model with its primary focus upon the pathological. Rank felt it was the creative type that was of the greatest interest, hence his description and emphasis upon the "artist" (Rank, 1975).According to Rank the artist is he/she who has turned the inner psychological struggle into an objectified ef- fort in the outer world, and in this process has developed the capacity for unusual usefulness.
Rank dealt as well with the now-popular-then-incredible issue of masculine ideology and feminine psychology (Sward, 1980). In an essay which points toward the essence of current feminist perspective, Rank declared that feminine psychology will not, must not, find its expression within the constraints of mason- line ideology, but transform cultural expression for both male and female. In this work Rank hinted at the oppression of women through the culturally dominant masculine psychol- ogy. In such a model, woman must either submit to the role de- fined for her by man or act in an independent masculine fash- ion; in neither case "is she her own self" (Rank, 1958,P: 268).
Finally, Rank was the. first to point out the historical basis of psychological theory. Psychology does not reveal truth as much as it parallels the historical truth of an era. Rank saw in the individual personalities of Freud, Jung and Adler the an- tecedents of their theoretical systems and the perspective they engendered. In this matter, Rank declared the essence of human experience to be beyond psychology. By this he meant that beyond the rational empirical attempts of modern psy- chology to explain human behavior lay a dimension he clas- sified as "irrational." In reality, this could better have been referred to as extra- non- or trans-rational, a domain tran- scendent to the purely rational. Rank felt that the danger of burying the irrational under the rhetoric of rational theorizing meant dismissing the vitality the irrational held for the human spirit. Of this, Rank said that the only real therapy was life and that
The only remedy is an acceptance of the fundamental irrationality ofthe human being and life in general, an acceptance which means not merely a recognition or even admittance of our basic "prim-
116 The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1981, Vol. 13, No.
itivity,' in the sophisticated vein of our typical intellectuals, but a real allowance for its dynamic functioning in human behav- ior, which would not be lifelike without it When such a con- structive and dynamic expression of the irrational together with the rational life is not permitted, it breaks through in violent distortions which manifest themselves individually as neurosis and culturally as various forms of revolutionary movements which succeed because they are irrational and not in spite of it (1958, p. 124).
It is this regard for the "irrational" which links Rank's work with that of transpersonal psychology. The respect he held for this dimension of human experience, which he referred to as artistic and at times religious, is the conviction that ultimately human experience will not be rationally explained, only experienced.
In order to understand Rank's trans personal contributions, it is necessary to begin with his concept of the will. "I mean by will," Rank stated, "a positive guiding organization and inte- gration of the self which utilizes creatively as well as inhibits the instinctual drives" (1968, p. 11). This will represents an autonomous force in the individual which does not favor any particular biological or social drive, but constitutes the creative expression of the total personality and distinguishes one indi-
vidual from another (Hafstein, 1978). In an initial elucidation
ofthis concept of will, beyond its place in personal psychology, Ira Progotf has likened the full creative potential of the will to Jung's concept of the Self:
The Self as conceived by lung is the psychological potentiality which emerges in each individual personality; and the will as conceived by Rank is the vital force with which that potentiality is expressed in the world (Progoff, 1973,p. 207).
Initially, will manifests as the mediant between impulse, on the one hand, and inhibition on the other. Rank saw this opposi- tion as central to human experience; the individual must struggle on the biological, psychological and interpersonal level with these twin processes continually. Rank referred to "impulse" as a basic psychological and social need, linked in positive extension to creativity, spontaneity, expression, and action in the world. Inhibition, though polar in action, he felt, was vital and genuine, as are all other self-serving and self- expressing instincts. He saw "inhibition" as the tendency to hold or stay action in creative service to organism and per- sonality. By extension this includes restraint, receptivity, openness, and depth. For Rank, the management of these twin dynamics, in relation to the opportunities and constraints of the environment, results in the development of personality.
Rank's concept of
the will
impulse, inhibition, and will
Will in the psychology of Otto Rank: A trans personal perspective 117
More specifically and in describing the consequences of first- realm will dependence he states:
... I can will knowledge, but not wisdom; going to bed, but not sleeping; eating, but not hunger; meekness, but not humility; scrupulosity, but not virtue; self-assertion or bravado, but not courage; lust, but not love; commiseration, but not sympathy; congratulation, but not admiration; religiosity, but not faith; reading, but not understanding. I would emphasize that the consequence of willing what cannot be willed is that we fall into the distress we call anxiety. And since anxiety, too, opposes such willing, should we, in our anxiety about anxiety, now try to will away that anxiety, our fate is still more anxiety. Within this im- passe meaning,reason,imagination,discrimination fail sothat the will is deprived of its supporting and tempering faculties (Farber, 1976,p. 7)
Second-realm will to balance and to support the utilitarian dimension is required. However, in tracking down the nature of this second realm will, we are confronted by paradox at every turn. It is doing by not doing: the slipping of one's habitual anchors related to first-realm willing, and letting flow. It is an act of being in the world as it is and willing-not-to-will otherwise. It is an open state where convenient mental fictions are suspended, be that even for a brief instant, and the innate potential of the moment perceived. This leads to a renewed sense of action or, if necessary, its absence-defined entirely by a clear perception of what is possible at any given moment. On a more practical level, a relationship exists between this idea of willing-not-to-will and the practice of clinical biofeedback. In learning to master control of involuntary processes, success is contingent upon the development of "passive volition" (Green & Green, 1977). This is a meta-force characterized by non- striving, a passive yet dynamic state of consciousness primarily subjective and experiential in nature. When asked to explain how a particular physiological response is controlled, the practitioner is often at a loss for words and describes the reg- ulatory function metaphorically. Swami Rama described his ability to control blood flow and subsequent temperature
change in two locations in the palm of his hand as simply "turn-
ing off the valves" (Boyd, 1976). Yet the harder one tries to accomplish a bioregulatory task, the more the parameter varies in an inverse direction. The biofeedback practitioner must learn "undoing," to let go of will-effort associated with first-realm willing, and to get-out-of-one's-own-way in inhibit- ing biological homeostasis.
This experience, biologically and psychologically, involves trusting the spontaneous organizing and integrating activity of
the nature
of
second-
realm
will
Will tn thepsychology of Otto Rank: A transpersonal perspective 119
the
will and
"vital experience"
the receptive dimension of the will
Empty-mind
the organism and, in relation to the world, our own capacity to respond with spontaneous intelligence and intuition to the tasks and challenges before us. We are then able to experience ourselves and the world directly. This involves both an open- ing and centering of the person as an expression of trust in the capacity of what is within to be able to deal with what is without. The will in both dimensions is necessary for the birth of consciousness and it is through the full exercise of will that the individual is led to "vital experience" (Rank, 1941, p. 16) described as:
... taking place at a psychic level deeper than rationality and its result is a sense of connection to life that extends beyond the present moment in all the directions of time, .. a sense of more- than-personal-participation in everlasting life (Progoff, 1973, p.250).
This experience, that of the Rankian hero or artist, must be
beyond psychology. Psychology represents an attempt at ra-
tional ideology and as such has the capacity to explain but not experience. Like the blind men with their elephant, it is not that any psychological perspective is wrong, simply not right enough. The receptive dimension of the will qualifies action
and belief as tentative; a point of view is simply a point of
view; action is right or wrong given circumstance or context. Involved in this is the paradox of passionate action in the face of eternal doubt. This requires the ability to "hang out," to live with ambiguity in an actively creative yet hesitant, restrained and ever expectant state. Fittipaldi (1980) using the Christian Mystical experience as example describes this as a state of Empty-Mind:
Empty-mind involves an attitude or consciousness that is not bound by any of its own forms. Each human person is born into a culture. Often a person might conceive of such patterns as the best and only way of perceiving reality, in which case we have cultural chauvinism or imperialism. Empty-mind involves the realization that no concept ofreality adequately describes that reality. Hence, empty-mind is open to concepts and is flexible. It is a conscious- ness that realizes its own limitations and boundaries and respects them and is not bound by them (p. 18).
To truly live in "empty-mind" is to perceive that every form of social or psychological experience is limited and capable of change at any moment. Clinically, this places the definition of normal or abnormal functioning beyond the narrow confines of contemporary psychological theory for it is
. ,. presumptuous and at the same time naive, .. this idea of simply removing guilt by explaining it causally as "neurotic!" Such an approach to the individual who seems inhibited by ex-
120 The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1981, Vol. 13, No.
figureIground
and
boundary
flexibility
guiltI neurosis
Rank, like Adler, felt the emphasis in rigid Freudianism upon the unconscious to be misplaced. However, like Jung, he also saw vast potential and extra or trans-rational experiences as the ultimate property of human consciousness. Progoff (1973) has suggested that Rank forms the vital link between the two positions of these early theoreticians, the Rankian will linking conscious volitions with extra-rational human dimensions. This position closely parallels in essence the ideas recently elucidated by Welwood (1977) concerning figure/ground in relation to conscious awareness, the unconscious and the transpersonal.
Figure or present, conscious awareness arises out of the com- posite ground of all potential consciousness. For Rank, the individual functions in a unitary fashion in that what is con- scious is implicit in what is not and vice versa. Conscious ac- tion is formed and supported by that which is not, and no di- chotomy exists, only the opportunity through operation of the will to develop lively figure boundaries and greater access to the ground out of which awareness arises. Boundary flexibil- ity leads to greater situation-specific responsibility. The com- posite ground consists of wider and wider interpenetrating levels, from basic open space in the Buddhist sense through transpersonal perspective and finally to situational specific awareness. Depth of being may be experienced in flashes of intuitive meaning or in a totally awakened state. Rank's idea of guilt/neurosis is, then, like Welwood's (1979):
... interpreted ... as arising from a commitment to "small" as opposed to "big" mind. We may feel guilty when we choose our smaller version of the world, at the expense of the larger expansive vision that arises from the basic relatedness of self and world (p. 171).
This Rankian sense of guilt/neurosis results from interrupting the urge toward transcendence or transpersonal awareness. Anxiety is associated with a limited sense of one's willful potential. On the one hand there exists the compulsion to willfully "make meaning" by attaching the self to something larger than the personality, yet simultaneously the result of at- tachment to anything less than "irrational-vital-experience- beyond-psychology" is doomed to be anxiety provoking.
This larger sense of meaning, Rank described as the "thou" needed by the ego to become a Self. "The psychology of the self is to be found in the other, the individual thou, or the inspirational ideology of the leader or the symbolic diffusion of another civilization" (Rank, 1958, p. 290). This must ulti- mately be considered transpersonal in nature.
122 The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1981, Vol. 13, No.
The reaching out for something bigger originates in the individual need for expansion beyond the realm of himself, his environment, indeed, early life itself. In this sense, the individual is striving not just for survival but is reaching for some kind of beyond, be it in terms of another person, a group, a cause, a faith to which he can submit (Rank, 1958, pp. 194-95).
Rank's artist, the creative type, willfully confronts the para- doxical experience of knowing self most definitely in relation to Other. In final measure, this paradox of self and other is resolved through immersion in the irrational as he/she "strives after the abrogation of individuality, for likeness, unity, one- ness with the all" (Rank in Hafstein, 1978, p. 75). As Rank says in Will Therapy:
The individual may enjoy every experience as such without tying it up causally, totally or finally with all the rest of his life or with what goes on in the world at all. The person then lives more in the present, in the moment, without longing to make it eternal,
REFERENCES
ARGUELLES , J. A. The transformative vision. Berkeley: Sham- bhala, 1975. ASSAGIOLJ , R. The act of will. Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books,
BOUCOUVALAS , M. Transpersonal psychology: A working outline of the field. J. TranspersonalPsychol., 1980, 12, 37-46. BECKER, E. The denial afdeath. New York: Free Press-Mac- Millan, 1973. BOYD,D. Swami. New York: Random House, 1976. FARBER,L. Lying, despair, jealousy, envy, sex, suicide, drugs and the good life. New York: Harper and Row. 1976. FITIIPALDI, S. E. Human consciousness and the Christian mystic: Teresa of Avila. Rel/ision, Spring, 1980, 3, I, 17-22. FODOR,N. The search for the beloved. New York: University Books, 1949. GREEN, E. and GREEN, A. Beyond biofeedback. San Francisco: Delacorte Press, 1977. GROF, S. Theoretical and empirical basis of transpersonal psychology and psychotherapy: Observations from LSD research. J. Transpersonal Psychol. 1973,5, 15-53. GROF, S. Varieties of transpersonal experiences: Observations from LSD psychotherapy. J. Transpersonal Psychol., 1972, 4,45-80. GROF, S. Realms of the human unconscious: Observations from LSD research. New York: Viking Press, 1975.
willful confrontation of paradoxical experience
Will in the psychology of Otto Rank: A transpersonal perspective 123
