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This contribution by the well known exponent of psychoanalysis consists of two parts: the first or theoretical part is given to general considerations of the time element in analysis, the mother fixation, libido outlets, ego resistance and to a discussion of the safety process; the second or practical part is concerned with the analytic technic of dream interpretation, the analysis of the fixation, the analytic family, the dream of pedigree, the analytic situation, infantile prototypes and with the historical situation.
It is quite obvious that Professor Rank's ideas are becoming more and more individualized apart from the orthodox Freudian tenets and the technic herein outlined and discussed is not that of psychoanalysis as it has been generally understood, but is a modification based upon Rank's personal investigations into the birth trauma situation, which his patients are encouraged to repeat during the analysis. He writes as one totally controlled by this concept which he considers to be a notable advance in the understanding of the mechanisms and the treatment of the neuroses. One chapter has been reprinted from his book “Entwicklungsziele des Psychoanalyse” ,1 written with Ferenczi.
To the author the historical factor in the neurosis is of no therapeutic importance although it may be of scientific interest. That is, it is of no more benefit to the patient to understand the origin of his neurosis than it is of curative value to know the source of any particular infection from which he may be suffering, but of fundamental importance is the transference or emotional displacement of instinctive primitive mechanisms inhibited in the neurotic conflict onto the representation of the infantile conflict in the analytical situation.
Among the many deviations from the Freudian analytic technic one finds a striking neglect of the associative material from patients, a tendency not to translate the separate elements of dreams, the setting of a time limit for the termination o