ABSTRACT
The overture to the conflict was played in 1922, when Karl Abraham criticised Rank in a circular letter for his dismissive attitude to proposals and for his gruff tone. Rank had become a central figure in the world of psychoanalysis. He was the editor of the Internationale Zeitschrift fur Psychoanalyse. Since 1919, he had been director of the psychoanalytic publishing house. Abraham emerges very badly from the secondary literature about the conflict surrounding Rank. It had become a tradition that the members of the committee would meet up for a few days in years when no international congress took place. In 1923, they planned to gather in San Cristoforo, close to Sigmund Freud's holiday address in Lavarone, although without Freud. The book that Rank published in 1924, however, The Trauma of Birth, brought about a greater estrangement between Freud and Abraham than ever before.
