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The author begins with a comparison of the psycho-analytic theories of Freud, Adler and Jung and their respective therapies which are coercive
in nature. Viewing the neurosis not as a disease but as a maladjustment of the individual to society, Rank regards the neurotic as a creative individual with a strong urge to immortalize his personality, but unable to convert this urge into positive action. He finds three principal forces: impulse, inhibition and will, the will producing a dynamic balance between impulse and inhibition in the normal personality. The neurotic, being fundamentally different from others, recognizes this difference, feels inferior, develops feelings of guilt, denies himself. He cannot accomplish the consecutive detachments necessitated by life, but becomes suspended at a primitive level. Fear of life and fear of death, universally present, are in equilibrium in the normal individual, but in the neurotic the conflict between them results in indecision. The environment of to-day fosters neurosis because of its individualistic tendencies strengthening the creative urge, but preventing adequate gratification through lack of collective values. Rank insists on separation of theory and therapy. Emphasis is laid on experience rather than learning, and the patient is urged to adjust himself to his own reality rather than attempt to conform himself to a norm established by the analyst. Re-living the past is kept at a minimum, inasmuch as it is the past from which the patient must free himself. The therapist is a depository for the negative aspect of the patient until he finally represents the neurosis and leaves the patient free to exert his positive self in a constructive fashion.