Originally published in 1909, Otto Rank's "The Myth of the Birth of the Hero" offered psychoanalytical interpretations of mythological stories as a means of understanding the human psyche.
Like his mentor Sigmund Freud, Rank compared the myths of such figures as Oedipus, Moses, and Sargon with common dreams, seeing in both a symbolic fulfilment of repressed desire.
In Otto Rank's view, this book was the first to attempt a psychoanalytical interpretation of myths: In it he declared that psychological reality is responsible for organizing what is narrated by the myth or the story. This work, a "cornerstone" of the psychoanalytical study of mythology, and written at Freud's request, did indeed open up original perspectives in the methodological approach to the problem of the formation and function of myths.
