I have traced the theories of Otto Rank as they appeared in his major technical writings. Against this background, I have discussed references to Rank in past and contemporary psychoanalytic literature. This paper describes three important contributions of Rank—his birth trauma theory, leading to his theory of the birth of the self; his emphasis on present experience (forerunner of the current "here-and-now" theory); and his writings about the creative potential of the termination process.