It is the author's "aim to present throughout something about Rank as a genius, an artist in his own right, not as a disciple of Freud but in terms of his own self-development; the inestimable value for him of his finding of Freud and the inner necessity (for his genius) as well as the personal tragedy of his separation from the Freudian group." The first section on the early years is based on Rank's Tagebücher; the section on the years of association with Freud, on Rank's letters; the section on years of fulfillment in Paris and New York, on the author's personal knowledge of Rank; and "the fourth and last section depends for its characterization of Rank on his own final summing up of a lifelong attempt to understand genius and its relation to culture as expressed in his book Art and Artist." List of published works of Otto Rank is appended.