Otto Rank

Character Analysis

Otto Rank was another of Freud's real-life colleagues. Younger than Freud, Rank was influenced by the more experienced psychoanalyst's work—but later editions of The Interpretation of Dreams were influenced by Rank in turn.

Although Rank doesn't exactly appear as a character in The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud often mentions him. And from the 1911 edition and on, the book's sixth chapter quotes long passages from dream-interpretations that Rank himself carried out.

Through these passages, Freud is able to do two things simultaneously. On the one hand, he's able to support the arguments he's making about the significance of symbols in dreams; and on the other hand, he's able to show readers that his methods of dream-interpretation have already inspired other doctors. In this way, Rank stands as an example of a new generation of Freudian practitioners.