Gothic Themes, Settings, and Figures | Otto Rank (Essay Date 1941)
OTTO RANK (ESSAY DATE 1941)
SOURCE: Rank, Otto. "The Double as Immortal Self." In Beyond Psychology, by Otto Rank, pp. 62-101. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1958.
In the following excerpt from an essay first published in 1941, Rank outlines the concept of the double as a symbol of the supernatural, or "immortal," self.
Our view of human behaviour as extending beyond individual psychology to a broader conception of personality indicates that civilized man does not act only upon the rational guidance of his intellectual ego nor is he driven blindly by the mere elemental forces of his instinctual self. Mankind's civilization, and with it the various types of personality representing and expressing it, has emerged from the perpetual operation of a third principle, which combines the rational and irrational elements in a world-view based on the conception of the supernatural. This not only holds good for...
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