Will Therapy

“Will Therapy” — this is a book about psychotherapy, will, and a person's ability to self-determination. Otto Rank builds a conversation around personality as an active and creative force, rather than just a carrier of past experiences. The focus is on responsibility, inner separateness, resistance, and the attempt to accept one’s own will. For those interested in psychoanalysis, the history of psychotherapy, and a philosophical-psychological view on personality development, this work provides a cohesive representation of the author's independent approach.
“Will Therapy” relates to psychotherapy and psychoanalysis but offers a different emphasis than the classical Freudian model. While psychoanalysis associated internal difficulties primarily with repressed past, Otto Rank shifts attention to the present — to how a person experiences their separateness, how they relate to their own will, and how capable they are of taking responsibility for themselves. In the book, will is viewed not as pressure or rigid control, but as the creative beginning of personality.