Otto Rank and The Art of Creative Participation 

Otto Rank Workshop # 2 Facilitated by Sara Ekenstierna, PhD, LPsy.

Online 4 Saturdays | May 2, 9, 16, 30 May, 2026. 

Description:

An introduction to pioneering psychoanalyst Otto Rank’s comprehensive theory of personality and creativity and its relevance to clinical work. We will conceptualize the links between creativity, mental health, and relational/interpersonal practice drawing on Rank’s framework and contemporary elaborations.

Emphasis is placed on the dual process of self-becoming: the interplay between active agency and resonant participation, and its parallels to artwork and psychotherapy. The creative type, or, life artist, is a self-actualizer who creates from the tension of opposites inherent in life, while art, or, creativity, is at-once a unio mystica (a realm where mind/body/matter coincide), that enables the deeper experience of the dissolution of the separate I; the “release from difference which leads to the feeling of unity with the self, with the other, with the cosmos”.

Otto Rank is one of the first relational and experiential psychoanalysts: his work anticipates Klein, Winnicott, Bion, as well as the psychodynamic short-term therapeutic tradition. He inspired a wide range of thinkers from Jacques Lacan, Rollo May, Jessie Taft and Carl Rogers, to cultural figures like Salvador Dalí, Lawrence Durrell, Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin, who wrote the foreword to his masterwork Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality Development (1932).

In this online course you will:

Grasp the basics of Otto Rank’s theory of personality and creativity, including:

• The creation of the personality “as an artwork of the self”.
• “The creative” personality type, their proneness to manifest their will through both conscious and implicit processes. Possible blockages (rendering them a dreamer or “neurotic”).
• Artist/muse-client/therapist parallels. You will improve your therapeutic abilities by elaborating on your co-participatory approach with clients.
• Contemporary psychodynamic elaborations of Rank’s theory.
• Recent supportive research implications.

Structure:

* Weekly May 2, 9, 16, 30, 2026.

• Pacific Time (PT) 9 AM -10 AM.
• Central Time (CT) 11 AM-12 PM.
• EasternTime (EST) 12 PM-1 PM.
• Central European Time (CET) 6 PM -7 PM.  

You will receive a zoom link when you register which is the same for all sessions. We meet online once a week for a presentation followed by discussion. Attendees are invited to offer their current associations, ideas and insights. You will receive reading materials and recommendations ahead of sessions when applicable. After completed workshop you may request a certificate of your participation.

System requirements:

• Access to Zoom and camera. In order to foster an interactive learning experience we ask that cameras are on.
• Ability to watch teaching materials on YouTube.*

Standard tuition:

$160

Funds raised go toward production and any surplus is used to pay facilitator(s).

If you are signing up to this course in Sweden the total tuition is 1937sek.

Level:

The workshop is for psychologists, therapists, analysts, mental healthcare professionals and those interested in the interface of science, creativity, personality development, and the philosophy and application of psychodynamic approaches. It is also relevant to artists and innovators interested in professional development. It will be helpful if registrants have attended the workshop on Otto Rank’s Dynamic Psychotherapy and a Therapeutic Third but it is not necessary and all learners are welcome!

About the facilitator:

Sara Ekenstierna, PhD, LPsy, is a psychologist and author who has focused on evidence-based short-term psychodynamic therapies since 2011. Spanning research, consultation, tailored workshops and dialogue groups, her work forges new approaches to public health and personal and professional development. Sara has written articles for Journal of Consciousness Studies, Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, International Psychoanalytic Association, American Philosophical Association, and she was a columnist for the Swedish professional magazine Psykologtidningen. She hosts the new podcast Bohmian Dialogues which explores a variety of topics such as mindset research, relational practice and history of ideas. Sara’s book The Part-Whole Relation and The Therapeutic Third: Otto Rank, David Bohm and Contemporary Psychoanalysis will be published by Routledge this year.

Additional information & registration:

Registration closes on April 29, 2026. REGISTRATION IS CLOSED FOR THIS EVENT. If you have questions send us a message.

* _{Workshop sessions start at 6 PM CET (double-check your corresponding timezone before the start of the workshop)}

* _{The presentations will be recorded so that anyone registered will be able to access them on the YouTube channel. The discussions won’t be recorded.}

* _{Processing fees may occur depending on the chosen payment method}. _{Read our refund policy.}