Collective will: a reformulation of Otto Rank's theory of personality individuation.

A reevaluation of Otto Rank's theory of personality individuation has been proposed which equates collective and individual will as essential and mutually facilitative aspects of self-development. Rank's viewpoint regarding social and moral development as necessarily normative and, hence, inimical to individuation is therefore challenged and disputed. It is further argued that the nature of will is not a priori moral and that it should be conceptualized empirically as a derivative of the self. The negative will has been defined as the counterposition of two wills against each other. It has been proposed that when the individual and collective will are in fixed opposition to each other their results can be destructive to personality development and to interpersonal and societal relations in general. The relative value given to either individual or collective aspects of will may be partly a function of the historical and sociopolitical environment of both the individuals whose personality development is thereby influenced and the theorist whose interest is devoted to understanding and remedying their problems.