Synopses & Reviews
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SOUL PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SOUL Otto Kank s SEELENGLAUBE UNO PSYCHOLOGIE Translated by WILL AM D. TURNER PH LADELPH A UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS 1950 TRANSLATORS PREFACE WHILE eighteen years have passed since Dr. Otto Rank pub lished his Seelenglaube und Psychologic, the durability of his theses, and the shift in psychological thinking from German-to English-speaking peoples, have seemed to justify the present translation. Because a psychological point of view is not a matter of sheer intellect, psychological convictions are apt to be firm, and psychological pioneers correspondingly rare. One really discovers a new point of view only through the painful relinquishment of an old one, and a translator as such can only prepare for this discovery to the extent of putting the new point of view into the learners native language when it is not already there. If the present translation docs just this much, and helps thereby to minimize the duplication of creative effort that already characterizes the helping pro fessions, it will have served a genuine purpose. If also it can encourage some creativity beyond itself, it will not have failed its own philosophy. Some professional readers who want only to ascertain what Rank has to say may wish that he had let his writings express simply the result of his movement away from Freud, rather than the movement as well. The severity of Ranks criticisms may make them more obnoxious and the unsym pathetic reader is not the only one whom Rank may anger, for neutral and sympathetic readers may have frequent cause for irritation with him. Two motives which underlay Ranks writing should not be disregarded. The first stemmed from the factthat his own developing point of view, and his criti PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SOUL cism of the point of view he was rejecting, were sides of one coin. The second motive arose from Rank as a creative per son whose overwhelming need to express himself left him with little or no readiness to consider his reader as a reader. We simply inherit the product of such motives, and claim or disclaim our heritage, as we ourselves may choose. Thus, Ranks translated style and some of his theses will certainly be formidable enough at first to the lay reader who habitually reads quickly and only once. But then the person who is prepared to think and to feel about what he reads will discover that Ranks point of view is as new and as stimulating as it was two decades ago. A second difficulty with Rank will lie in his virtual obligation to use prose to transmit a thesis, much of which is inherently poetic and irrational. Life, experience, growth, the soul, and mans need to believe in his immortality can no more be contained within the sober lines of prose than within the bounds of logic. A readers final and greatest struggle with Rank may well lie with his own will to deny his feelings about the meaning of what he reads and to deny that he is denying them. This experience is natural enough and quite beyond criticism, because any human being will have the same struggle. I comment upon it only to explain to some readers why so many others to whom they may refer this volume will finally lay it aside in more or less unrecognized anger and despair. Psychology and the Soul reflects both elements of its title. Of the two, mans belief in his soul is so basic that it alone could have identified the book withoutmisleading the reader. But the word psychology has also been retained because psychologies of one kind or another have come to hold sig nificance for so many persons, because they are so often grasped with the hope that they will provide what no psy chology can give, and because in a way they manifest the vi TRANSLATORS PREFACE efforts of psychologists to save their own and others souls. Perhaps Ranks central thesis is that intellectual psychology cannot give man the immortal soul he wants, but tends to destroy with doubt the soul which he does have...
Synopsis
This antiquarian volume contains Otto Rank's seminal psychological treatise, 'Psychology And The Soul'. Published due to the significant shift in psychological thinking, from German to English-speaking peoples, this accessible translation will be of considerable utility to students of psychology. It is not to be missed by discerning collectors and those with a keen interest in the work of Otto Rank. Otto Rank (1884 - 1939) was an influential Austrian psychoanalyst, writer, and teacher, as well as one of Sigmund Freud's closest colleagues. We are republishing this vintage book now in an affordable, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.
Synopsis
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SOUL PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SOUL Otto Kank s SEELENGLAUBE UNO PSYCHOLOGIE Translated by WILL AM D. TURNER PH LADELPH A UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS 1950 TRANSLATORS PREFACE WHILE eighteen years have passed since Dr. Otto Rank pub lished
Synopsis
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SOUL PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SOUL Otto Kank s SEELENGLAUBE UNO PSYCHOLOGIE Translated by WILL AM D. TURNER PH LADELPH A UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS 1950 TRANSLATORS PREFACE WHILE eighteen years have passed since Dr. Otto Rank pub lished his Seelenglaube und Psychologic, the durability of his theses, and the shift in psychological thinking from German-to English-speaking peoples, have seemed to justify the present translation. Because a psychological point of view is not a matter of sheer intellect, psychological convictions are apt to be firm, and psychological pioneers correspondingly rare. One really discovers a new point of view only through the painful relinquishment of an old one, and a translator as such can only prepare for this discovery to the extent of putting the new point of view into the learners native language when it is not already there. If the present translation docs just this much, and helps thereby to minimize the duplication of creative effort t