Freedom from self-consciousness: Hero in here and now

Artistic heroism, as an aesthetic way of life, was not the only solution Rank offered to the problem of meaninglessness. There is a answer being offered in Rank's Truth and Reality (1929) that is based on (i) becoming centered in the present moment and (ii) finding meaning by extending oneself towards the other person. Rank's argument here illuminates well his post-Freudian views, his somewhat unorthodox rhetorics and makes it

understandable why he is often considered to be a pioneer for the Gestalt Therapy, object-relations theory, and relational therapy in general. We shall now explore his arguments.

Firstly, in 'Truth and Reality' (1929), which could be characterized as one of Rank's most important philosophical statements after his departure from freudian ideology, Rank (Rank 1989, 72) follows Nietzsche by tracing the 'birth of individuality' into ancient Greek civilization and suggests that it was here when man first took ”the place of God in the self-ruling creative hero”. This extraordinary deed also lead to extraordinary guilt as man now had to take responsibility for his 'god-slaying'. This sentiment was expressed in the classical tragedies. The Greek poet hero makes himself responsible for everything – and

pays a heavy price for it, usually death.

The formation of a Greek hero raises the man into a divine status, glorifying the individual creative power, despite its often tragic consequences. If in Jewish civilization God

represented 'will' and man represented 'guilt', in Greek hero these two – 'guilt' and 'will' – are united. For Rank, Greeks represent a heroic solution to human problem. In Christianity, a new element is added into the mix as God now takes on the guilt and man subjects his will to Him. Christianity also adds the experience of love in the center of human

experience. The patriarchal dominance – and will principle – which were emphasized in Jewish culture give way to a feminine principle. Each of these aforementioned cultural groups embody a certain level of development – and an essential element of a human experiece (Rank 1989, 74).

Rank (Rank 1989, 78) sees 'God' as a symbol of will. The notion of 'creative, omnipotent and omniscient God' is a glorious, yet hubristic representation of human will. Rank follows Jung in deconstructing the most basic cultural symbols into psychological representations:

Mother represents 'positive will' and father 'the counter-will'. The creative powers of the individual, artistic and productive kind, can be understood ”under the justifying symbol of the creative god”. Through Christianity, with its humanization of God, the hero – the creative man – becomes now a universal type, culminating in a modern highly individualistic man.

This neurotic modern man has seen through his God-illusions, i.e. has recognized his own part in their creation and is unable to find solace from the paternal symbols of Divinity – be it feminine or masculine. He is forced to become his own therapist, and at the same time: A therapist for other sufferers, his fellow men. (Rank 1989, 81) He does not long for a common saviour but seeks an individual one – one just for him. With this in mind he comes to a therapist. Yet he realizes, sooner or later, that he cannot achieve salvation in this way: Yes, the therapist is a creator of new meanings but so is he himself. The 'patient' needs to both affirm his own will and throw himself into the mutual therapeutic creation, which Rank characterizes as a 'rebirth experiece' (Rank 1989, 82).

In Truth and Reality, Rank (Rank 1989, 82) gives a scathing critique about the potential of psychoanalysis to genuinely help man with his existential problems, yet in the end he ends up resurrecting the notion of therapy – and therapeutic relationship specifically - into an even more elevated position as a true hope for modern man. In therapy, a neurotic modern man is to be allowed to ”mold himself into that which he is”⁵³, to affirm his individuality.

There can be no pre-conceived model for this. So, there is an opening in the new type of relationship – a therapeutic relationship - for man to rise beyond symbols of redemption into something more real, yet he is doubtful about 'individual therapy's' ability to offer him salvation.

Modern man has projected his own will into a symbol of God, but now start's to realize what he has done. Also, he sees how creating a secular 'ethical love ideology' is

also...another ideology. Man is suffering from 'the loss of illusions'. In this situation, Rank (Rank 1989, 86) says, there is a danger that he will try to get free of the ”conscious will-ego” either temporarily or permanently. If the 'individuality' has cause this isolation, let it be rooted out! He might try to do this through freeing up his sexuality. Though this can offer a brief consolation, Rank (Rank 1989, 86) warns that there can be ”no salvation that aims at the dissolution of, or escape from individuality”.

And here, just as one is starting to feel somewhat despondent about Rank's ability to offer any kind of solution, the narrative takes an interesting twist: Rank (Rank 1989, 88) proposes that the whole business of longing for redemption has to do with guilt consciousness, which itself is a gruelling form of self-consciousness. 'Happiness' and 'redemption' are actually polar opposites, not different degrees on a same scale, whose endpoint would the dissolution of individuality and separation. Longing for salvation is directly connected to will-to-unity and oneness, which is the destruction of individuality.

Rank claims that there is always a guilt-feeling associated with the act of giving up oneself.

Happiness, on the other hand. relates to 'personal consciousness', pleasurable affirmation of will, and is 'a peak of individualism' itself.

An observant reader might ask here that doesn't it seem that Rank here is taking a stand

against the impulse to Unity/Oneness and siding squarely with the impulse to

Autonomy/Individuation? Is the balance between these impulses no more the ideal? Rank's move turns out to be less one-sided than what first appears. Rank (Rank 1989, 89)

explains that our problem lies in our strong desire to prolong or shorten psychic states: To prolong life ad infinitum as in our desire for immortality. Or to shorten it to a up to a point of nothingness, as in the exreme acts of self-negation. From the point of view of

psychology of emotions, he explains, consciousness has a problem with time. It is the time-factor that makes different contents and contexts pleasurable or painful.

Buddhist path, at least if crudely understood as a linear process towards Nirvana – the dissolution of the separate identity – and Christian path – with its goal of immortality – are both attempts to free oneself from the 'tormenting self-consciousness' and are not actually dealing with biological death, Rank claims. Self-consciousness is a temporal form of consciousness: Not present in the absolute moment of now. This temporal form of

consciousness is what is being kept alive, by ”permanence and eternity symbols”, such as immortal Soul, Heaven or Nirvana (Rank 1989, 89).

Prior to developing a time-consciousness, man was actually feeling immortal in his own experience. To Rank (Rank 1989, 90), this is also the meaning of the myth of the Fall: It represents the guilt and complications that arise directly from the emergence of temporal consciousness. Rank names it as the ”Kronos complex”, deeming it as perhaps ”the most powerful complex” tormenting the modern man.

We then have two problematic impulses: Firstly (i) the one attempting eternal duration, which corresponds with our need for individuation and self-preservation, and secondly the (ii) one attempting deliverance from consciousness, which is connected with our will to merge with life and thus to disappear as separate entity. Both are bound to fail and prone to create guilt-feelings in us. Schopenhauer saw no redemption except through 'eternal nirvana', a cessation of one's individuality essentially. Freud was not far from this when he highlighted the power of thanatos, the death instinct, in both individual and society.

Nietzsche advocated the affirmation of one's Will expression as a self-creation, yet, Rank (Rank 1989, 92) notes, this is difficult for a modern neurotic who suffers from excessive

self-consciousness and guilt-feelings associated with it. Neurotic longs for denial of the will.

Rank's solution seems to be as follows: Human longing for redemption and happiness - both denoting experience of lack - can be shattered in the experience of love, which can only happen in present moment. This love experience Rank (Rank 1989, 95) terms, simply,

”therapeutic”. Salvation-seeking denotes always a guilt-consciousness, but making the other person happy can release us from guilt, which then makes the individual himself happy. This can certainly be difficult for a neurotic person who, in his longing for

salvation, starts divinizing the other, putting her on a pedestal. However, the release from guilt cannot be accomplished this way, but through 'positive will accomplishment' – for, in the end, the salvation does not depend on any object outside of oneself. Happiness cannot be achieved through the other person but it can be discovered with another person (Rank 1989, 96).

It is Rank's (Rank 1989, 97) conviction that all 'universal redemption therapies', whether they take their manifestation in religions, sciences or arts, need to be shattered, for the individual salvation that the modern man strives for can only be found from individual happiness, not through a collective endeavours. When the individual arrives to a point that he no longer finds satisfaction in universal ideologies, he must seek it through individual means. At this point, there is a risk of self-destruction as man tries to finally free himself by any means necessary. This risk is high especially when one does not engage in any therapeutic work.

However, if the will of the individual is ”affirmed and not negated or denied , there results the life instinct, and happiness”, which could be called salvation, Rank believes (Rank 1989, 97). All this can be found from life-experience and too much theorizing about its dynamics, does not necessarily bring us closer to it. The questions about it, which arises from a psyche, where the will is split into timid self-consciousness and sense of guilt, cannot be answered with philosophical theories. The happiness is not found in 'truth', but in reality, here- and now.