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We can read in works of all time, from Gilgamesh, the psalms, and Sophocles until Schopenhauer and the existentialists, that wisdom begins with mortal fear, above all with the omnipotent fate “that raises man when it crushes him” (Schiller).
The Myth of Creation describes allegorically the premature birth of the human being, his crudity, his defectiveness, and the traumatic circumstances of his incarnation. The early expulsion from the heavenly abode in the womb is a process of “divisiveness”-to echo Schelling-from which oneness with Mother Nature is disrupted. The “tearing away” from nature, from “absolute liquid,” and the “bodily fear” experienced during this time are dreadful. With the loss of Paradise entered the awareness of death.
But this awareness contains the potential to form the roots of human independence, self-confidence, and creativity. Rank (1932) considered the consciousness of mortality and the urge to overcome the fear of death important motivating forces in the development of human creativity and culture. Rank attributed the anthropological aspiration to express oneself in creative works-from cave painting to children's drawing, culminating in artistic pursuits and the “creation of the human cultural works”- all as responses to die fear of death.
However, Rank's new ideas were ultimately rejected by Freud and his circle, which led to his exclusion from the psychoanalytic movement and the complete tabooing of his entire works (cf. Janus, 1998; Janus & Wirth, 2000). As much as Freud admired art, it was still an “illusion” (1933, p. 173), “a mild anesthetic” (1930, p. 439) similar to religion, however “harmless and agreeable”