a form of psychotherapy based on the theory that neuroses can be avoided or overcome by asserting the will (or “counterwill”) and by achieving independence. According to this theory, will is central to personality formation and to the struggle to separate oneself from the mother psychologically, just as one is physically separated from her during birth. Also called Rankian therapy. See also birth trauma. [developed by Austrian psychoanalyst Otto Rank (1884–1939)]