Originally published in 1909, Otto Rank&#39;s &quot;The Myth of the Birth of the Hero&quot; offered psychoanalytical interpretations of mythological stories as a means of understanding the human psyche.&nbsp;<br />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.<br /><br />In Otto Rank&#39;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 &quot;cornerstone&quot; of the psychoanalytical study of mythology, and written at Freud&#39;s request, did indeed open up original perspectives in the methodological approach to the problem of the formation and function of myths.<br /><br />Breaking away from the naturalist analysis of mythology, Rank founded his study on the parallel between dream and myth and on the concept proposed by Freud of the &quot;f<i>amily romance of neurotics</i>.&quot;