Otto Rank and man's urge to immortality

Otto Rank, one of Sigmund Freud's original followers, posited the existence of an "urge to immortality" as man's deepest drive. In his Psychology and the Soul, Rank traced the desire for immortality through four historical eras, with particular emphasis on the creativity of the hero and the artist. By the end of his life, Rank had not only repudiated orthodox psychoanalysis and developed then abandoned a psychology of the will, he had moved "beyond psychology" to a religious view of history and the nature of man.