Freud, Rank and, the problem of anxiety

Anxiety has always been a phenomenon of great importance among psychoanalysts. Freud, as the founder of psychoanalysis, took much notice of this phenomenon from the beginning of his career, and he was always trying to give a comprehensive explanation for this problem. Therefore, throughout his career, he modified his theories about anxiety frequently, and even one time, he changed his whole theory from its basis. Amid these modifications, one of his disciples, Otto Rank, had a significant influence on him. In 1924, Otto Rank published a book named “the Trauma of Birth,” which had a new theory about anxiety. Even though Freud first expressed a positive opinion about this book, but later on he doubted on his first take of the book, and finally he disagreed with Rank’s whole theory of anxiety and criticized it from the base. But on the other hand, This led Freud to recognize the flaws and defects of his theory and for the last time, try to modify it, and thus he reached his ultimate views on this topic. In this article, first, we review Freud’s first theory of anxiety, and then we discuss Rank’s book “The Trauma of Birth” and its theory about anxiety. Finally, we analyze Freud’s criticisms of this theory and present the ultimate form of his anxiety theory.