Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Anna Freud" - New World

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Anna Freud (December 3, 1895 - October 9, 1982) was the sixth and last child of Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund and Martha Freud. Born in Vienna, Austria but escaping to London in 1936 during the Nazi-occupation, Freud followed the path of her influential father contributing to the newly born field of psychoanalysis and founding the field of child psychiatry.

Life

As a child, Anna fostered a close relationship to the Freud family’s Catholic nursemaid, Josefine Cihlarz, who played a significant role in the upbringing of the Freud’s three youngest children. Though Anna remained extremely close to her father, her relationship with her mother and older sister, Sophie, was unusually strained. A lively child with a reputation for mischief, Anna won the respect and admiration of her father at an early age. In an 1899 letter to friend Wilhelm Fliess, Sigmund Freud wrote of his youngest daughter, "Anna has become downright beautiful through naughtiness... ". Despite her mischief, Anna was raised to respect the values of discipline and behavior, two traits that would remain with her throughout her professional career.

Anna began her schooling at the age of six and entered the Salka Goldman Cottage Lyceum, an all female school for teaching, at the age of ten. Throughout her schooling Anna maintained a love for reading and writing poetry, and was renowned for her extraordinary memory, an asset that would play a critical role in later years involving clinical discussion. Her academic performance while attending the Lyceum soon ensured her a position on the teaching staff, which she accepted until 1922.

Work

Though Freud excelled as a teacher, her interest in the field of psychoanalysis and psychiatry never waned. From 1918 to 1922, her father performed psychoanalysis on her, further enhancing her interest in psychology. Eventually, Anna left the Lyceum to assist in her father’s studies, eventually becoming the Librarian of the Viennese Psychoanalytic Association in 1922.

Anna took an immediate interest in the field of child psychoanalysis, and refuted significant claims made by earlier analysts of the field including Melanie Klein, a respected member of the British psychological society. Freud’s discord with the British society regarding the field of child analysis marked the first of many disparities between the Viennese and British psychological associations.

Anna Freud’s following began to grown soon after her emergence into the Viennese psychological society. Offering seminars throughout Eastern Europe, Anna soon gained international attention and respect throughout the psychological world. With friend and colleague Dorothy Burlingham, Anna established a public clinic for the physical and psychological care of the underprivileged children of Vienna.

After the 1938 annex of Austria by the Nazi party, the Freud family and a number of Jewish associates were safely transported to London where both Anna and Sigmund continued their clinical studies as members of the British psychological society. Fundamental differences between the Viennese psychological society and the British psychological society continued, eventually creating a second school of training for psychological study within Britain.

In 1939, Sigmund Freud eventually succumbed to cancer of the jaw with his daughter, Anna, beside him. After his death Anna retained her father’s fundamental psychological values, but continued in her personal pursuit of pediatric psychoanalysis. In the midst of the Second World War, Anna, again with Burlingham, established the Hampstead War Nurseries to care for the population of homeless children affected by the devastation of the war. Freud also used the nursery to record various psychological observations regarding child development that helped to further increase the amount of knowledge within the field. Her studies were collected and published in two works, Young Children in Wartime (1942) and Infants Without Families (1944).

In 1952 Anna established the Hampstead Child Therapy Clinic which further contributed to the knowledge of child psychoanalysis. In 1965 she published perhaps her most influential work, Normality and Pathology of Childhood. Freud continued in her research, publishing numerous studies and accounts regarding education, child development and psychoanalysis throughout the later half of her life. In 1967 Freud was appointed Commander of the British Empire for her substantial contributions to the field of child psychology. In 1975 she received an honorary M.D. from the University of Vienna, and an honorary Ph.D. from the Goethe Institute in Frankfurt in 1981.

From the 1950s until the end of her life Anna Freud traveled regularly to the United States to lecture, teach and visit with friends. During the 1970’s Anna was concerned with the problems of emotionally deprived and socially disadvantaged children, and studied deviations and delays in development. At Yale Law School she taught seminars on crime and the family which led to a transatlantic collaboration with Nobel Prize winner Joseph Goldstein and Dr. Albert Solnit on children and the law, publishing the influential Beyond the Best Interests of the Child in 1973.

After a long and prestigious life, Anna would eventually succumb to advanced anemia at the age of 87. Cremated, her ashes were laid next to her father’s in London in 1982.

Legacy

Anna Freud is often considered a pioneer in the development of psychoanalytic theory and practice. In arguably her best known work, The Ego and Defense Mechanisms (1936), Freud identified psychological repression as the principle defense mechanism instilled within humans. Her argument that the human ego played a significant role in the resolution of conflict and tension was further advanced by psychoanalysts Heinz Hartmann and Erik Erikson. Freud’s influence in the field of child development was also continued by the works of German psychoanalyst Edith Jacobson and Hungarian psychiatrist Margaret Mahler.

The formation of the fields of child psychoanalysis and child developmental psychology have also attributed to the work of Anna Freud. Focusing on the psychological research, observation and treatment of children, Freud established a group of prominent child developmental analysts who identified children's symptoms as analogous to personality disorders among adults and related such findings to developmental stages. At the time, these ideas proved revolutionary and Freud constructed a comprehensive theory of developmental lines, which combined her father's important drive model with more recent object relations theories of development. Her findings proved to emphasize the importance of parental roles in the child development process. Freud also developed different techniques of the assessment and treatment of child psychological disorders, thereby contributing to an understanding of anxiety and depression as significant problems among children.

Upon Anna’s death in 1982, the Hampstead Clinic which she co-founded in 1952 was renamed to the Anna Freud Center after the "passionate and inspirational teacher". In 1986 Anna’s home in London, as she had wished, was transformed into the Freud Museum, a psychology museum dedicated to the memory of her father and the psychoanalytical society.

Publications

Freud, Anna. Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (The Writings of Anna Freud, Vol. 2, 1936) (The Writings of Anna Freud, Vol 2) International Universities Press, 1936. ISBN 0823668711.

Freud, Anna. The Psycho-Analytical Treatment of Children- Technical Lectures and Essays. Imago Publishing Co. Ltd.; London, 1954.

Freud, Anna. Problems of Psychoanalytic Training, Diagnosis, and the Technique of Therapy 1966-1970 (Writings of Anna Freud, Vol 7). International Universities Press, 1971. ISBN 0823668762.

Freud, Anna. The Writings of Anna Freud (Writings of Anna Freud, V.3): Infants Without Families Reports on the Hampstead Nurseries. International Universities Press, 1970. ISBN 082366872X.

Freud, Anna. Psychoanalytical Psychology of Normal Development (The Writings of Anna Freud, Vol 8). International Universities Press, 1981. ISBN 0823668770.

Freud, Anna. Indications for Child Analysis and Other Papers: 1945-1956 (Writings of Anna Freud, Vol 4). International Universities Press, 1968. ISBN 0823668738.

Freud, Anna. Normality and Pathology in Childhood: Assessments of Development (Writings of Anna Freud, Vol. 6). International Universities Press, Incorporated. 1966.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Anna Freud. The Gale Group, Inc., 2005. 20 February 2007.
Uwe Henrik Peters (1985). Anna Freud: A Life Dedicated to Children, Weidenfeld, London. ISBN 0805239103.
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl (1988). Anna Freud: A Biography, Summit Books, New York. ISBN 0393311570.

External Links

Credits

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History of "Anna Freud"

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@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Life==
-The youngest of Sigmund Freud's six children, Anna always identified with her father more closely than any of her siblings.  Perhaps because of this, Anna was the only one who became a psychoanalyst.  While she admired her father, Freud had a strained and distant relationship with her mother.  Her mother, being skeptical of psychoanalysis, was always troubled with Anna.
+As a child, Anna fostered a close relationship to the Freud family’s Catholic nursemaid, Josefine Cihlarz, who played a significant role in the upbringing of the Freud’s three youngest children. Though Anna remained extremely close to her father, her relationship with her mother and older sister, Sophie, was unusually strained. A lively child with a reputation for mischief, Anna won the respect and admiration of her father at an early age. In an 1899 letter to friend [[Wilhelm Fliess]], Sigmund Freud wrote of his youngest daughter, ''"Anna has become downright beautiful through naughtiness... "''. Despite her mischief, Anna was raised to respect the values of discipline and behavior, two traits that would remain with her throughout her professional career.
-Aside from her parents, Anna had difficulties getting along with her [[sibling]]s, specifically with her sister, Sophie Freud.  Sophie, who was the prettiest child, represented a perceived threat in the struggle for the affection of their father.  Although her father supported Anna's intellectual interests, he refused to send her to a school that would prepare her to continue on to college.  Instead she was sent to the Cottage Lyceum, a school for teachers.
+Anna began her schooling at the age of six and entered the [[Salka Goldman Cottage Lyceum]], an all female school for teaching, at the age of ten. Throughout her schooling Anna maintained a love for reading and writing [[poetry]], and was renowned for her extraordinary memory, an asset that would play a critical role in later years involving [[clinical discussion]]. Her academic performance while attending the Lyceum soon ensured her a position on the teaching staff, which she accepted until 1922.
-In 1914, at the outbreak of World War 1, Anna was visiting a friend in England.  As soon as it was possible for Anna to return to Vienna, she began her career as an elementary school teacher, having been inspired by the ideas of Maria Montessori.  During in the war she worked at her old school, the Cottage Lyceum, but stopped shortly after the war in order sto begin working more closely with her father. She briefly considered becoming a doctor but was dissuaded by him.
+==Work==
+Though Freud excelled as a teacher, her interest in the field of [[psychoanalysis]] and [[psychiatry]] never waned. From 1918 to 1922, her father performed psychoanalysis on her, further enhancing her interest in psychology. Eventually, Anna left the Lyceum to assist in her father’s studies, eventually becoming the Librarian of the [[Viennese Psychoanalytic Association]] in 1922.
-Anna did not have a very close bond with her mother and had difficulties getting along with her [[sibling]]s, specifically with her sister Sophie Freud. Sophie, who was the prettiest child, represented a threat in the struggle for the affection of their father. Apart from this rivalry between the two sisters, Anna had some other difficulties growing up. Out of correspondence between father and daughter, it can be concluded today that Anna suffered from a [[clinical depression|depression]] which caused [[Eating disorder|eating disorders]]. The relationship between Anna and her father was different from the rest of her family, they were very close. She was a lively child with a reputation for mischief. [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]] wrote to his friend [[Wilhelm Fliess]] in 1899: ''"Anna has become downright beautiful through naughtiness... "'', Sigmund was very proud of his youngest daughter.
+Anna took an immediate interest in the field of child [[psychoanalysis]], and refuted significant claims made by earlier analysts of the field including [[Melanie Klein]], a respected member of the [[British]] psychological society. Freud’s discord with the British society regarding the field of [[child analysis]] marked the first of many disparities between the Viennese and British psychological associations.
-Anna began school in 1901, later on Anna would say that she didn’t learn much in school but all the more from her father and his guests at home. This way she picked up languages as [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], [[German language|German]], [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]] and [[Italian language|Italian]]. At the age of 15, she started reading her father’s work. At a young age she started to tell her father her dreams and he would publish them in his book Interpretation of Dreams. Anna finished her education at the Cottage Lyceum in Vienna in 1912. Suffering from a depression, she was very insecure about what to do in the future. Subsequently, she went to [[Italy]] to stay with her grandmother.
+Anna Freud’s following began to grown soon after her emergence into the Viennese psychological society. Offering seminars throughout Eastern Europe, Anna soon gained international attention and respect throughout the psychological world. With friend and colleague [[Dorothy Burlingham]], Anna established a public clinic for the physical and psychological care of the underprivileged children of Vienna.
-In 1914, she started teaching at her old school, the Cottage Lyceum. In 1918 her father started [[psychoanalysis]] on her and she became seriously involved with this new profession. Her analysis was completed in 1922 and thereupon she presented the paper ''"Beating Fantasies and daydreams"'' to the Vienna Psychoanalytical Society, subsequently becoming a member. In 1923 she began her own psychoanalytical practice with children and two years later she was teaching at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Training Institute on the technique of child analysis. From 1927 until 1934 she was the General Secretary of the [[International Psychoanalytical Association]] while she continued child analysis and seminars and conferences on the subject. In 1935 Anna became director of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Training Institute and in the following year she published her influential study of the "ways and means by which the ego wards off displeasure and anxiety", ''The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence''. It became a founding work of [[ego psychology]] and established Anna’s reputation as a pioneering theoretician.
+After the 1938 [[annex]] of Austria by the [[Nazi]] party, the Freud family and a number of Jewish associates were safely transported to London where both Anna and Sigmund continued their clinical studies as members of the British psychological society. Fundamental differences between the Viennese psychological society and the British psychological society continued, eventually creating a second school of training for psychological study within Britain.
-==Work==
-In 1938 the Freuds had to flee from Austria as a consequence of the Nazis' continuous harassment of Jews in Vienna. Her father's health, who was severely infected with jaw cancer, was getting bad and she had to organize the family's emigration to London. Here she continued her work and took care of her father, who finally died in the autumn of 1939.
-When Anna arrived in London, a conflict emerged between her and [[Melanie Klein]] regarding developmental theories of children. This conflict threatened to split the British Psycho-analytical Society, but ended in training courses given from two different points of view.
-The war gave Anna opportunity to observe the impact of deprivation of parental care on children. She set up a centre for young war victims, called "The Hampstead War Nursery". Here the children got foster care although mothers were encouraged to visit as often as possible. The underlying idea was to give children the opportunity to form attachments by providing continuity of relationships. This was continued after the war at the ''Bulldogs Bank home'', which was an orphanage, ran by colleagues of Anna and was taking care of children who survive concentration camps. Based on these observations Anna published a series of studies with her lifelong friend, Dorothy Burlingham on the impact of [[stress]] on children and the ability to find substitute affections among peers when parents cannot give them.
+In 1939, Sigmund Freud eventually succumbed to cancer of the jaw with his daughter, Anna, beside him. After his death Anna retained her father’s fundamental psychological values, but continued in her personal pursuit of pediatric psychoanalysis. In the midst of the [[Second World War]], Anna, again with Burlingham, established the [[Hampstead War Nurseries]] to care for the population of homeless children affected by the devastation of the war. Freud also used the nursery to record various psychological observations regarding child development that helped to further increase the amount of knowledge within the field. Her studies were collected and published in two works, ''Young Children in Wartime'' (1942) and ''Infants Without Families'' (1944).
-In 1947 Anna Freud and Kate Friedlaender established the Hampstead Child Therapy Courses. Five years later, a children's clinic was added. Here they worked with Anna's theory of the [[developmental lines]]. Furthermore Anna started lecturing on [[child psychology]]. Until then Child analysis had remained a quite uncharted territory. Siegfried Bernfeld and August Aichorn, who both had practical experience of dealing with children, mentored her in this.
+In 1952 Anna established the [[Hampstead Child Therapy Clinic]] which further contributed to the knowledge of child psychoanalysis. In 1965 she published perhaps her most influential work, ''Normality and Pathology of Childhood''. Freud continued in her research, publishing numerous studies and accounts regarding education, child development and psychoanalysis throughout the later half of her life. In 1967 Freud was appointed [[Commander of the British Empire]] for her substantial contributions to the field of child psychology. In 1975 she received an honorary M.D. from the [[University of Vienna]], and an honorary Ph.D. from the [[Goethe Institute]] in [[Frankfurt]] in 1981.
-From the 1950s until the end of her life Anna Freud travelled regularly to the [[United States]] to lecture, to teach and to visit friends. During the 1970s she was concerned with the problems of emotionally deprived and socially disadvantaged children, and she studied deviations and delays in development. At Yale Law School she taught seminars on crime and the family: this led to a transatlantic collaboration with Joseph Goldstein and Albert Solnit on children and the law, published as ''Beyond the Best Interests of the Child''(1973).
+From the 1950s until the end of her life Anna Freud traveled regularly to the [[United States]] to lecture, teach and visit with friends. During the 1970’s Anna was concerned with the problems of emotionally deprived and socially disadvantaged children, and studied deviations and delays in development. At [[Yale Law School]] she taught seminars on crime and the family which led to a transatlantic collaboration with [[Nobel Prize]] winner [[Joseph Goldstein]] and Dr. [[Albert Solnit]] on children and the law, publishing the influential ''Beyond the Best Interests of the Child'' in 1973.
-Anna Freud died in October 9, 1982. One year after her death a publication of her collected works appeared.  She was mentioned as "a passionate and inspirational teacher" and the Hampstead Clinic was renamed the [[Anna Freud Centre]]. Furthermore her home in London for forty years was in 1986, as she had wished, transformed into the Freud Museum, dedicated to her father and the psychoanalytical society.
+After a long and prestigious life, Anna would eventually succumb to advanced [[anemia]] at the age of 87. Cremated, her ashes were laid next to her father’s in [[London]] in 1982.
 ==Legacy==
+Anna Freud is often considered a pioneer in the development of psychoanalytic theory and practice. In arguably her best known work, ''The Ego and Defense Mechanisms'' (1936), Freud identified psychological [[repression]] as the principle [[defense mechanism]] instilled within humans. Her argument that the human [[ego]] played a significant role in the resolution of conflict and tension was further advanced by psychoanalysts [[Heinz Hartmann]] and [[Erik Erikson]]. Freud’s influence in the field of child development was also continued by the works of German psychoanalyst [[Edith Jacobson]] and Hungarian psychiatrist [[Margaret Mahler]].
-Anna Freud moved away from the classical position of her father, who was concentrating on the unconscious [[Id]] (a perspective she found to be restrictive) and instead emphasized the importance of the [[ego]], the constant struggle and conflict it is experiencing by the need to answer contradicting wishes, desires, values and demands of reality. By this, she established the importance of the ego functions and the concept of [[defense mechanisms]].
+The formation of the fields of child psychoanalysis and child developmental psychology have also attributed to the work of Anna Freud. Focusing on the psychological research, observation and treatment of children, Freud established a group of prominent child developmental analysts who identified children's symptoms as analogous to personality disorders among adults and related such findings to developmental stages. At the time, these ideas proved revolutionary and Freud constructed a comprehensive theory of [[developmental lines]], which combined her father's important [[drive model]] with more recent [[object relations]] theories of development. Her findings proved to emphasize the importance of parental roles in the child development process. Freud also developed different techniques of the assessment and treatment of child psychological disorders, thereby contributing to an understanding of [[anxiety]] and [[clinical depression|depression]] as significant problems among children.
-Focusing on research, observation and treatment of children, Freud established a group of prominent child developmental analysts (which included Eric Erikson, Edith Jacobson and [[Margaret Mahler]]) who noticed that children's symptoms were ultimately analogue to personality disorders among adults and thus often related to developmental stages. At that time, these ideas were revolutionary and Anna provided us with a comprehensive developmental theory and the concept of [[developmental lines]], which combined her father's important drive model with more recent [[object relations]] theories of development, which emphasize the importance of parents in child development processes.
-As such, the formation of the fields of child psychoanalysis and child developmental psychology can be attributed to Anna Freud.
+Upon Anna’s death in 1982, the Hampstead Clinic which she co-founded in 1952 was renamed to the [[Anna Freud Center]] after the "passionate and inspirational teacher". In 1986 Anna’s home in London, as she had wished, was transformed into the [[Freud Museum]], a psychology museum dedicated to the memory of her father and the psychoanalytical society.
-Anna Freud furthermore developed different techniques of assessment and treatment of children disorders, thereby contributing to our understanding of [[anxiety]] and [[clinical depression|depression]] as significant problems among children.
 ==Publications==