“The neurotic, no matter whether productive or obstructed, suffers fundamentally from the fact that he cannot or will not accept himself, his own individuality, his own personality. On one hand he criticizes himself to excess, on the other he idealizes himself to excess, which means that he makes too great demands on himself and his completeness, so that failing to attain leads only to more self-criticism. If we take this thwarted type as we may do for our purpose, and compare him to the artist, it is at once clear that the artist is, in a sense, the antithesis to the self-critical, neurotic type. Not that the artist does not criticize himself, but by accepting his personality, he not only fulfills that for which the neurotic is striving in vain, but goes far beyond it. The precondition, then, of the creative personality is not only acceptance, but it’s actually glorification of itself.”
—Dr. Otto Rank on Art and Artist, found in Anaïs Nin’s Diaries, Volume One
