The American Journal of Psychoanalysis

, Volume 72, Issue 4, pp 409–417 | Cite as

Confusion of Wills: Otto Rank’s Contribution to an Understanding of Childism

Article
First Online:

Abstract

Drawing from Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's psychological and psychodynamic study of prejudice as a starting point, this paper explores the phenomenon of childism—namely, the prejudice again children—from a Rankian psychodynamic perspective. Young-Bruehl argues that childism is comparable to prejudices such as anti-Semitism, sexism, and racism, and serves such purposes as the elimination of an individual's personhood, sexual exploitation, and the erasure of identity. Adding to Young-Bruehl's analysis of the social and psychological causes and effects of prejudice against children, this paper will examine the nature and dangers of childism explicit and implicit in the writings of Otto Rank. We will examine the development of creative will in child maturation—a development that childist forms of prejudice may obstruct, inhibit, and compromise. We will see that Young-Bruehl's foundational writing on childism echoes many of the observations and writings of Otto Rank in regard to the prejudice against children, and how such prejudice deeply diminishes, undermines, and fractures our unfolding lives and creative will in a shared world.

Keywords

childism prejudice creative will artist manqué neurosis guilt counter-will 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Ferenczi, S. ([1933] 1994). Confusion of tongues between adults and the child. In Final contributions to the problems and methods of psychoanalysis (pp. 156–167). London: Karnac Books.Google Scholar
  2. Kramer, R. (Ed.) (1996). A psychology of difference: The American lectures of Otto Rank. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
  3. Lawrence, M.M. (1999). Creativity and the family. Gender and Psychoanalysis, 4 (4), 399–411.Google Scholar
  4. Lieberman, E.J. & Kramer, R. (Eds.) (2012). The letters of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.Google Scholar
  5. Menaker, E. (1982). Otto Rank: A rediscovered legacy. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
  6. Menaker, E. (1996). Some thoughts on Rank's views of creativity. Paper presentation at the American Psychological Association, Spring.Google Scholar
  7. Pierce, C.M. & Allen, G.B. (1975). Childism. Psychiatric Annals, 5, 266–270.Google Scholar
  8. Rank, O. (1907). The artist. Vienna: Hugo Heller.Google Scholar
  9. Rank, O. (1936). Will therapy. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
  10. Rank, O. ([1927] 1996). The Prometheus complex. In R. Kramer (Ed.), A psychology of difference: The American lectures Otto Rank (pp. 201–210). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
  11. Rank, O. (1945). Truth and reality. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
  12. Rank, O. ([1930] 1998). Seelenglaube und psychologie, G. C. Richter & E. J. Lieberman (Trans.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
  13. Rank, O. (1932). Art and artist. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
  14. Rank, O. ([1941] 1958). Beyond psychology. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
  15. Rank, O. (1996). A psychology of difference: The American lectures, R. Kramer (Ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
  16. Young-Bruehl, E. (1996). The anatomy of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
  17. Young-Bruehl, E. (2009). Childism. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 45 (3), 251–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Young-Bruehl, E. (2012). Childism: Confronting prejudice against children. New Haven, CT & London, England: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Ph.D., L.P.Chicago

Personalised recommendations