Conference Presentations by Sara Ekenstierna
Oakstar Art & Publishing , Dec 31, 2023
This conference presentation offers an overview of some of the key tenets of Austrian psychoanaly... more This conference presentation offers an overview of some of the key tenets of Austrian psychoanalyst Otto Rank’s psychology, with attention to the philosophical underpinnings of his thought, and to my understanding of Rank as an innovative, a non-reductive, and ultimately holistic thinker. More so, I explore an undervalued area of Rank’s scholarship, namely his early explorations at the nexus of psychology and physics.
Oakstar Art & Publishing , Dec 5, 2023
In this paper I elaborate on Otto Rank’s existential-psychodynamic approach, by considering his t... more In this paper I elaborate on Otto Rank’s existential-psychodynamic approach, by considering his thought in a wider context of meaning, including from the point of view of David Bohm’s holistic philosophy, and Martin Buber’s relational self-construct. I trace, via recent work by Rank scholar Robert Kramer, the existential implications of Rank’s psychology. Beyond that, I shed light on Rank as a holistic thinker; one who during his transitional (1924-1926) and post-Freudian eras (1926-1939), in his understanding of human becoming, ventures beyond subject – object division, reductionism, mechanism, and classical notions of a causal present determined by the past, towards a partly indeterminate, co-creative present, and a therapy set in the here-and-now.
Papers by Sara Ekenstierna
Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 2025
Otto Rank is an innovative and holistic thinker who ventured beyond subject–object
division, redu... more Otto Rank is an innovative and holistic thinker who ventured beyond subject–object
division, reductionism, mechanism, and classical notions of causality in his understanding of
human becoming and therapeutic relationship. Rank has in uenced object–relational;
interpersonal, experiential; and time-limited approaches, while his will psychology and
theory of creativity are unique contributions to modern psychotherapy (Kramer, 2019;
Merkur, 2010; Mitchell & Black, 1995; O’Dowd, 1986; Rudnytsky, 2018; W. Wadlington,
2012). There are links to be drawn between today’s relational psychoanalysis and Rank’s
early (pre)ontological work, where Rank’s ideas underlie developments in the direction of
some of Wilfred Bion’s1 and Donald Winnicott’s conceptions, as well as later explorations of
betweenness and thirdness (Aguayo, 2013; Ekenstierna, 2024; Ogden, 2019; Winnicott,
1984). More so, Rank can be considered a formative force behind existential–humanistic
psychology in the United States (deCarvalho, 1999; Kramer, 2019; Lieberman, 1985;
Menaker, 1982; Schneider, 2022). Jessie Taft, Rollo May, Carl Rogers, Irvin Yalom, and
Stanislav Grof are among those who bodied forth modern (re)interpretations and real-world
applications of his framework. In this article, I draw on Rank’s transitional (1924–1926) and
post-Freudian eras (1926–1939). I consider the existential and metaphysical roots of Rank’s
psychology in a larger context of meaning and expand on what such notions implicate for
practice. Areas of focus include Rank’s relational and experiential understanding of therapy,
as well as his embodied and cosmic notion of (un)conscious process.
Publication: OnlineFirst. ©American Psychological Association, 2025. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: 10.1037/teo0000311
LinkedIn, 2021
Sigmund Freud had as is well known a partly deterministic view of selfhood. While neo-Freudians l... more Sigmund Freud had as is well known a partly deterministic view of selfhood. While neo-Freudians like Eric Fromm maintained that the human being is capable of wellbeing – defined as the presence of wellness rather than the absence of illness – the outlook of Freud was that we at best may attain “common unhappiness.” Of love, Freud wrote: “Although a strong egoism is a protection against falling ill, in the last resort we must begin to love others in order not to fall ill”.
Further reading:
Freud, S. (1914). On Narcissism: An Introduction. London: Hogarth Press.
Fromm, E. (1998). The Art of Being. New York: Continuum.
Rubin, J. B. (2004). The Good Life: Psychoanalytic Reflections on Love, Ethics, Creativity, and Spirituality. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Oakstar Art & Publishing , 2020
Skånska Dagbladet , 2011
Det behövs fler kvinnor i näringslivet Som kvinnlig företagare väcks en del funderingar kring hur... more Det behövs fler kvinnor i näringslivet Som kvinnlig företagare väcks en del funderingar kring hur det egentligen ser ut med jämställdheten. Även om utvecklingen går framåt, kvarstår skevheterna mellan könen när det gäller makt, inflytande och lön. På vissa sätt tycks det fortfarande vara en framgångsfaktor att vara man. Nypublicerat material från Harvard visar att kvinnorna endast utgör 3 % av topp 500 CEOs. Mindre än 15% av cheferna i de största företagen världen över är kvinnor. I Sverige ökar andelen kvinnor på det stora hela i chefsyrken, med en takt som innebär att vi först under 2030-talet kommer att ha lika många kvinnor som män på ledarposter.
Thesis Chapters by Sara Ekenstierna
University of Queensland. School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, 2024
This thesis provides a comprehensive study of the connections between psychoanalyst Otto Rank's w... more This thesis provides a comprehensive study of the connections between psychoanalyst Otto Rank's work, the so-called Therapeutic Third, and physicist David Bohm's implicate order. It explores the interface of psychoanalysis, modern physics, existential philosophy, and creativity. The mind-body-matter relation and the client-therapist dyad are examined through decompositional dual-aspect monism, which embraces a psychophysically neutral realm and a tripartite picture, mirrored in Bohm’s implicate order of the undivided universe, and Rank's Beyond. This realm is empirically inaccessible but is subject to experience via being. In the therapeutic situation it is what I call the Therapeutic Third: the at-once intersubjectively-generated and self-cosmically contextualized Unio Mystica between client and therapist.
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Conference Presentations by Sara Ekenstierna
Papers by Sara Ekenstierna
division, reductionism, mechanism, and classical notions of causality in his understanding of
human becoming and therapeutic relationship. Rank has in uenced object–relational;
interpersonal, experiential; and time-limited approaches, while his will psychology and
theory of creativity are unique contributions to modern psychotherapy (Kramer, 2019;
Merkur, 2010; Mitchell & Black, 1995; O’Dowd, 1986; Rudnytsky, 2018; W. Wadlington,
2012). There are links to be drawn between today’s relational psychoanalysis and Rank’s
early (pre)ontological work, where Rank’s ideas underlie developments in the direction of
some of Wilfred Bion’s1 and Donald Winnicott’s conceptions, as well as later explorations of
betweenness and thirdness (Aguayo, 2013; Ekenstierna, 2024; Ogden, 2019; Winnicott,
1984). More so, Rank can be considered a formative force behind existential–humanistic
psychology in the United States (deCarvalho, 1999; Kramer, 2019; Lieberman, 1985;
Menaker, 1982; Schneider, 2022). Jessie Taft, Rollo May, Carl Rogers, Irvin Yalom, and
Stanislav Grof are among those who bodied forth modern (re)interpretations and real-world
applications of his framework. In this article, I draw on Rank’s transitional (1924–1926) and
post-Freudian eras (1926–1939). I consider the existential and metaphysical roots of Rank’s
psychology in a larger context of meaning and expand on what such notions implicate for
practice. Areas of focus include Rank’s relational and experiential understanding of therapy,
as well as his embodied and cosmic notion of (un)conscious process.
Publication: OnlineFirst. ©American Psychological Association, 2025. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: 10.1037/teo0000311
Further reading:
Freud, S. (1914). On Narcissism: An Introduction. London: Hogarth Press.
Fromm, E. (1998). The Art of Being. New York: Continuum.
Rubin, J. B. (2004). The Good Life: Psychoanalytic Reflections on Love, Ethics, Creativity, and Spirituality. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Thesis Chapters by Sara Ekenstierna
division, reductionism, mechanism, and classical notions of causality in his understanding of
human becoming and therapeutic relationship. Rank has in uenced object–relational;
interpersonal, experiential; and time-limited approaches, while his will psychology and
theory of creativity are unique contributions to modern psychotherapy (Kramer, 2019;
Merkur, 2010; Mitchell & Black, 1995; O’Dowd, 1986; Rudnytsky, 2018; W. Wadlington,
2012). There are links to be drawn between today’s relational psychoanalysis and Rank’s
early (pre)ontological work, where Rank’s ideas underlie developments in the direction of
some of Wilfred Bion’s1 and Donald Winnicott’s conceptions, as well as later explorations of
betweenness and thirdness (Aguayo, 2013; Ekenstierna, 2024; Ogden, 2019; Winnicott,
1984). More so, Rank can be considered a formative force behind existential–humanistic
psychology in the United States (deCarvalho, 1999; Kramer, 2019; Lieberman, 1985;
Menaker, 1982; Schneider, 2022). Jessie Taft, Rollo May, Carl Rogers, Irvin Yalom, and
Stanislav Grof are among those who bodied forth modern (re)interpretations and real-world
applications of his framework. In this article, I draw on Rank’s transitional (1924–1926) and
post-Freudian eras (1926–1939). I consider the existential and metaphysical roots of Rank’s
psychology in a larger context of meaning and expand on what such notions implicate for
practice. Areas of focus include Rank’s relational and experiential understanding of therapy,
as well as his embodied and cosmic notion of (un)conscious process.
Publication: OnlineFirst. ©American Psychological Association, 2025. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: 10.1037/teo0000311
Further reading:
Freud, S. (1914). On Narcissism: An Introduction. London: Hogarth Press.
Fromm, E. (1998). The Art of Being. New York: Continuum.
Rubin, J. B. (2004). The Good Life: Psychoanalytic Reflections on Love, Ethics, Creativity, and Spirituality. Albany: State University of New York Press.