In every case of suffering is the feeling of being different. The universal human search for the beloved is an attempt to project one's own will onto another in order to unburden existential guilt, to transform our painful difference into likeness. The neurotic is the failed artist what the French call the artist manque who has failed to affirm and accept this inescapable burden of difference. Neurotic guilt is the penalty, the throwback of responsibility, for failing to accept this difference. The neurotic is unable to accept this difference positively, but rather is compelled to interpret it negatively, as inferiority.
Difference remains a problem unless and until it is transformed into creativity.
Rankian therapy was designed to release clients from primal repression, and to allow them to endure separation and difference. Living psychology occurs in relationship, argued Rank, not in individuality. This healing encounter of I and Thou leads to a feeling of unity with the other, with the self, and with the Cosmos. Such a meeting paradoxically affirms one's difference while simultaneously releasing one from the pain of being different. Love, will, and creativity are partial answers to the problems of life.