ROBERT KRAMER
Secrets from the Freud-Rank Correspondence
Montag, 20. November 2006, 19.00 Uhr
Veranstaltungssaal
Sigmund Freud Museum
Berggasse 19, 1090 Wien

Based on the unpublished correspondence between Freud and Rank, Robert Kramer reveals the tragic story of why Rank chose to leave psychoanalysis after devoting 20 years of his to life to Freud and "die Sache", which he knew were one and the same. Freud greatly valued Rank, who served in many important roles from 1905 until 1925-Secretary and, later, Vice-President of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, co-editor of "Zeitschrift" and "Imago", managing director of the "Verlag", and member of the Secret Committee. In 1924 Ferenczi and Rank, then close friends, published "The Development of Psychoanalysis", which criticized classical technique for "unnatural elimination of all human factors in the analysis." At the same time, Rank published "The Trauma of Birth", exploring how art, myth, religion, philosophy and psychotherapy were illuminated by separation anxiety in the "phase before the development of the Oedipus complex." The two books were immediately denounced by Abraham and Jones. No one in the inner circle had ever dared to suggest that the Oedipus complex might not be the supreme causal factor in psychoanalysis. After some hesitation, Freud distanced himself from both "The Development of Psychoanalysis" and "The Trauma of Birth", signaling to Abraham and Jones that Ferenczi and Rank were perilously close to anti-Oedipal heresy. Fearing the loss of Freud s love, Ferenczi broke with Rank. Confronted with Freud s decisive opposition, Rank, abandoned by Ferenczi, his only friend, resigned in protest from all his organizational positions in "die Sache" and chose to leave Vienna with his wife, Tola, and child, Helene.

Robert Kramer, PhD, teaches leadership at American University in Washington DC, USA. From 2002-2005, he served as director of executive education at American University. Dr. Kramer s publications on the history of psychoanalysis have appeared in scholarly journals in the U.S., the U.K. and, in translation, in Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain. He is editor of A Psychology of Difference: The American Lectures of Otto Rank (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996). He is book review editor of "Journal of Organizational Change Management"(U.K.) and serves on the editorial board of "Journal of Humanistic Psychology" (US), "Human Resource Development International" (U.K.), "Thalassa" (Hungary) and "Internationale Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie und Gruppendynamik" (Austria). Dr. Kramer is collaborating with E. James Lieberman on the publication of the Freud-Rank correspondence, which will appear in German, English and French editions.

Eine Veranstaltung der Sigmund Freud Privatstiftung in Kooperation mit dem Institut für Bildungswissenschaft der Universität Wien und der Webster University