Anna Freud’s Life and Contributions to Psychology
Women Trailblazers in Psychology #1
‘’I was looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time.’’ -Anna Freud.
Anna Freud was born in 1895 in Vienna as the youngest child of Sigmund Freud; she is known for being the founder of child psychoanalysis. During 1912–1923, she graduated from Cottage Lyceum and started her psychoanalytic practice focusing on children. She then wrote two of her pioneering works: An Introduction to the Technique of Child Analysis (1927), the first book on child psychoanalysis where she combined her pedagogical experience with psychoanalytic insights and criticized Melanie Klein; and The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (1936).
She continued her father’s works and identified defense mechanisms — psychological strategies that are unconsciously used to protect a person from anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings. Fundamental defense mechanisms are:
- Repression: The principal defense mechanism.
- Denial
- Projection
- Displacement: Regarded as a negative defense mechanism.
- Regression
- Sublimation: Regarded as a positive defense mechanism.
Most of us use defense mechanisms, and nothing is pathological about it. Unlike Sigmund Freud, she focused less on abnormalities and combined the theory with a practical approach.
On the brink of the second world war, the Freud family fled to London, where Anna Freud formed the Hampstead Nursery in 1941. Five years later, she became British. Freud’s child therapy methods were heavily criticized by Melanie Klein, who utilized play therapy to investigate children’s unconscious feelings, anxieties, and experiences while defending that young children are incapable of Freudian techniques. Disagreements between Anna Freud and Melanie Klein, two inspirational Austrian-British women of the mental health community, became a saga in the British Psychoanalytical Society known as the Controversial Discussions (1942–1946). The society was initially divided into opposing poles between the classical Freudian and Kleinian methods of analysis, which resulted in establishing two parallel training courses. Later emerged an independent, unpolarized group, as well.
She believed that family intimacy and a mother figure are essential to healthy child development; therefore, she designed her reception centers in a way that would make children feel in a family environment. Her efforts in child therapy resulted in forming and directing The Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic in 1952, which is still in service as Anna Freud Centre. In 1967, Queen Elizabeth II named Anna Freud a Commander of the British Empire. In 1975, she was awarded an MD degree from the University of Vienna. She also received the Grand Decoration of Honor in Gold the same year. Freud died in 1983 at the age of 88. Her contributions to child psychotherapy are treated as a legacy at Anna Freud Centre in the UK, where studies combining her theories with modern methods are being conducted up to this date.
References
Vinney, C. (2019, May 27). Anna Freud, Founder of Child Psychoanalysis. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://www.thoughtco.com/anna-freud-4685538
Cherry, K. (2020, May 14). Why Anna Freud Is One of the Most Important Psychologists in History. Retrieved September 12, 2020, from https://www.verywellmind.com/anna-freud-biography-1895-1982-2795536
Cherry, K. (2020, May 14). The Women Who Pioneered the Studies of Psychology. Retrieved September 12, 2020, from https://www.verywellmind.com/women-who-changed-psychology-279526
Controversial discussions. (2019, June 04). Retrieved September 13, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversial_discussions
Who was Anna Freud? Everything You Need to Know. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2020, from https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/anna-freud-4637.php
Our history. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2022, from https://www.annafreud.org/about-us/our-history/
