The Life and Influence of Anna Freud
Introduction
There
are many influential and important women who achieved recognition for their
work in the field of psychology. Mary Ainsworth, Karen Horney, Melanie Klein,
amongst others, had a remarkable influence on the field, and their importance
can’t be denied. However, this paper is devoted to the study of Anna Freud, the
youngest daughter of Sigmund Freud.
Childhood
Anna
Freud was born on December 3rd, in 1895. She was the sixth and
youngest child of Martha and Sigmund Freud, and although her father, the famous
psychoanalyst from Vienna is probably one of the most important and influential
people in the history of psychology, Anna also contributed immensely to the
development of psychology as a science, especially with her work in the field
of psychoanalytic child psychology, to which she is considered to be one of the
founders.
Anna
Freud’s childhood was somewhat troubled. She did not get along with her
siblings and never developed a deep relationship with her mother. Her birth mother, who was 34 years old when
Anna was born, was not too excited about the pregnancy, and refused to
breastfeed or pay much attention to the new baby. Luckily Anna found comfort
and motherly love in Josephine Cihlarz, the nanny who took care of the three
younger children in the Freud family. Anna was extremely competitive and jealous
of her sister Sophie, who she considered to not only be more attractive than
her, but also a threat in her efforts to receive attention from her father. The
young girl was really small and frail, and it is believed that she could have
been suffering from a depression that caused eating disorders. Although she did
not get along well with her sisters, brothers and mother, Anna was extremely
close to her father, who reattributed the love and shared the same affection
for Anna.
Anna
attested that she did not learn a lot in school; instead, the constant presence
of her father’s guests in her home enabled the girl to learn many languages,
like German, Hebrew, Italian, French and English. As a teenager, she enjoyed
reading her father’s work, but after finishing her education, the still depressed
girl had many doubts regarding what to do with her life. She traveled to Italy
to stay with her grandmother and in 1914 she went to England to improve her
English. However, her stay was short because war was declared.
The Academic Start
Her
entrance at an academic career happened in 1914, when she became a trainee at
the Cottage Lyceum, the same school where she graduated from. Two years later,
she became an elementary school teacher, but her teaching career was interrupted
because of tuberculosis. After that, her father started practicing
psychoanalysis on her, and she became very interested and involved with his
profession. Although for a long time Anna tried to deny her father’s influence
on her career, and achieve accomplishments on her own, in 1924 she became a
member of the Committee of Sigmund’s closest advisors. At this point, she
realized that even though she was accepted as a member only because of her
relationship with Sigmund Freud, and not because of her own merits, she decided
to seize the opportunity and be grateful for what she saw as a present.
Working With Children
In 1923, Anna started practicing
psychoanalysis with children and in 1925 she started teaching her technique of
child analysis at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Training Institute, from where she
became the director later on. Although extremely engaged in the subject of
Child Psychoanalysis, Anna did not publish any important statements about the
subject until her first book, “An Introduction to the Technique of Child
Analysis” came out in 1927. In the book she explained hew view on child
development. The book was a collection
of her lectures, and attacked the ideas of another influential child
psychoanalyst, Melanie Klein. Freud’s and Klein’s ideas were extremely
controversial and would often collide. For instance, Melanie Klein believed
that the superego developed regardless of the parents’ influence. Anna, on the
other hand, believed in her father’s idea that the superego was formed after
the dissolution of the Oedipus complex, which is directly influenced by the
parents.
In
1927, after having already taught a course in the Vienna Training Institute,
Anna Freud, alongside Eva Rosenfeld and Dorothy Burlingham, started a school
for local children, where Freud and her colleagues presented alternative
teaching methods. One of her colleagues also involved in the project was the
famous psychologist Erik Erikson, and the school served as a basis for Anna’s
future projects with children.
Although
Anna was always greatly influenced by her father’s accomplishments and ideas,
she strived to become her own. For instance, her analysis of children was
different than her father’s analysis of adults. Sigmund believed that the
symptoms presented by adults were the basis for the diagnosis. However, Anna
believed that the symptoms presented by children were characteristic of the
developmental leap the child was going through, and they were often transitory
in subject. Sigmund Freud was extremely pleased with the idea of his daughter
taking her own steps instead of just following his own.
The Effects of the War
In
1938, the Second World War and the Nazis’ persecution and attack towards the
Jews forced the Freud family to leave Austria and immigrate to London. At this
time, Sigmund Freud’s health had severely deteriorated sue to jaw cancer, so
his daughter Anna was responsible for moving the family. Although she took
great care of her father, Sigmund Freud passed away in 1939. During the war,
Anna had the chance to examine and study the effects of parental care
deprivation on children. She started a center for young victims, the “Hampstead
War Nursery”, where she offered foster and care for those children, although
their mothers were encouraged to visit constantly. The intent of that project
was not only to care for the children, but also to give them a chance to form
attachment relationships. The Hampstead Nursery allowed Anna and her colleagues
to observe children that suffered many losses and had experienced traumatic
experiences in their lives. The Hampstead War Nursery closed when the Nazi
reign ended and life could begin to again for those that survived. The
experience she gained with the Nursery helped to pave the way for Anna to
establish the Hampstead Child Therapy Courses in 1947. Another project created by Anna alongside some
colleagues was the “Bulldogs Bank Home”, an orphanage dedicated to take care of
children who survived the concentration camps. Both projects gave Anna an
opportunity to publish many studies about the impact of stress on children, and
how they find comfort and affection in people other than their parents.
Interest in Adolescence
Another
important accomplishment of Anna Freud was the development of a technique of
using developmental lines charting normal growth and diagnostic profiles that
allowed the analyst to separate and identify the case specific factors that
deviated from or conformed to normal development. At one point in her life,
Anna admitted being more interested in the latency period than the pre-Oedipal
phases, and in her book “On Defense Mechanisms”, published in 1936, her child
psychoanalysis progressed to adolescence. With that book, she emphasized the
equal importance of the Id, Ego and Superego, in a clinical point on view.
Also, she reviewed some of her father’s work, elaborating and summarizing them.
Even though she referred to Sigmund Freud’s work in her book, she also
incorporated her own experiences regarding defense mechanisms.
Another
influential psychoanalytic paper wrote by Anna Freud was “About Losing and
Being Lost”, published in 1967. In that paper, she describes the urge people
have to remain loyal to those who have already died, which was most likely a
reference to her own pain after losing her father. In fact, it can be said that
Anna devoted her professional life to protecting and respecting her father’s
work. She would rarely criticize his ideas, but by presenting her own, she
became one of the most important foundations for psychology.
Conclusion
If
Sigmund Freud is considered the father of psychoanalysis, Anna Freud can be
considered the mother of child psychoanalysis, as her studies are still valid
and used nowadays in the treatment and observation of children. Before her,
child psychoanalysis did not exist as a field of its own. Although it would
have been easy for her to remain in her father’s shadow, she always strived to
present her own ideas, which many times could contradict her father’s. One
example of that is the fact that Sigmund Freud spent most of his life
emphasizing the importance of the unconscious Id on a person’s motivations.
Anna, on the other hand, believed that someone’s motivations were more affected
and influenced by the Ego. Anna Freud was a successful and influential woman in
the history of psychology, and she will always be remember and appreciated for
her efforts towards understanding and treating children.
REFERENCES
Anna
Freud. (2012). Retrieved from
http://www2.webster.edu/~woolflm/annafreud.html
Cherry,
K. (2012). Important
Women in Psychology History. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/womeninpsychology/tp/important-women-in-psychology-history.htm
Hernandez,
C. (2012). Women
in Psychology: Anna Freud. Retrieved from
http://voices.yahoo.com/women-psychology-anna-freud-1687901.html
Owen,
A. (2001). Anna
Freud. Retrieved from
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/afreud.htm
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