Andrew S. Bold
Professor Beaux
Personality 305
05 November 2018
Kin of Greatness: Anna Freud
Growing up in the footsteps of your father is hard, let alone it being one of the most recognized individuals in the field of Psychology. The Father of Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud was an Austrian Neurologist born May 6th,1856. He is credited to spurring innovation in the psychological sphere. After spending numerous years in focusing on unconscious conflicts based on dreams, fantasies, and other complexes from childhood that leads to the understanding of a person. As a pioneer in psychology, Sigmund Freud years later is by far the most recognized individual in the field. In the same light, the birth of Anna Freud struck the world by storm. It is 1895, in the month of December of which Anna was born in. Coming into a world in which was difficult from the start with economic issue plaguing her family and the multitude of siblings she had given a tough start on life. It is said that Anna was an omen of good and something that would benefit the family and Freud. Throughout this paper, I will be researching the intricacies of Anna Freud through the light of her achievements to the world.
Utilizing his family as a perfect case study to back up his work in psychoanalysis, Freud took up no part of the parenting of his children. Almost excluding his children from his life in the normal societal norms he took his great family as an opportunity to gain knowledge about his theories. Martha, the mother of Anna set aside rules outlining her wishes for Freud to keep the kids out of his work. Although taking note of her wishes, Freud went ahead and did it anyway. Anna, coming to this world during his period of work named “The Project” came at a perfect time for Sigmund who utilized some of Anna’s dreams in one of Sigmund’s most famous works, “The Interpretation of Dreams”. Anna’s behavior and actions throughout her childhood are rumored to be one of the reasons why he wrote about a daughter’s attachment to her paternal figure. The relationship between Anna and Sigmund is something that he cherished because as he was gaining more information about his research her actions would back it up. At the age of ten, Sigmund wrote “Three essays on Sexuality” in which he ventured in the possibility of sexual thoughts with parental figures. As Anna transitioned to the tail end of her teenage years he began his work on his journal “The Antithetical Meaning of Primal Words”. The relationship that Anna and Sigmund fostered throughout the years played such an impact on her life that as she was leaving her adolescent year she longed and needed that type of focus on her life so she too chose the realm of psychology to devote her life and her focus.
Early life for Anna was cluttered with distractions. Growing up in a household that in many cases proved abnormal, it extended further than that. Anna Freud became getting courted by Ernest Jones, a man working with Freud to further his research. Taking her father’s lead, it seemed that although her sexual needs that needed to be fulfilled were nowhere near her fathers advise of her needing to make a name for herself. During that time period, she had no clue that she was going to be as successful as she was meant to be. Children, the basis of Sigmund Freud’s work to understand the adult population led to the success of Anna Freud’s research into the therapy of children. Anna Freud’s education stopped at the high school level, however, she was involved in the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. In 1918 her introduction to the society allowed her to take all of her knowledge and gain her analytic training, although it is rumored that her real training all came from her father. In 1922 she was admitted to the Vienna Society which was a catalyst for her future in the field.
Anna Freud is known as the Founder of Child Psychoanalysis, research into defense mechanisms, and her work surrounding ego psychology. Anna’s completion of high school led her to become an elementary school teacher through her education and experience with her dad’s research throughout the years it was the gateway to her translating numerous works of her father into German. As time went on, she began to fall in love with the field and thus expanded on her fathers work while also creating the field of child psychoanalysis. One of her biggest limitations ironically was due to her deep connection with her father and his thought process. It led her work to be constrained by the work her father had made limited the success of herself in the world of Psychology due to the things that she took as concrete. She referred to the field of study that she focused on as psychoanalysis, not psychology, which was pioneered by her father. With her passing at the age of eighty-six, it led to the end of the field that she had created however some of her implications that she suggested ended up flooded into the world psychology such as her father’s work.
Child Analysis, the backbone of Anna Freud’s work was a brand-new field in which she led the nation with her tactics. Some of her innovations stemmed from the visitation of children and utilizing different types of toys to spur different outcomes and results from each one of the children. In reality, her trademark to the world of psychology came through the systemization of therapy for children. Keeping the analysis of children vs. adults parallel allowing dedicating an allowance for the immaturity of children. Melanie Kline, her competition in the field during this time was one of the biggest fights of her life. Although they were studying similar topics they differed opinions on several areas which eventually led to her success. The basis of Anna Freud’s theories stood with the idea that children were not old enough to drift away from their family. On the other hand, Melanie Klein, through transference-resistance reactions held that children could be analyzed. Ms. Klein took her work with a strict analytic method which at the time stood with the current thought processes, however, no one pushed the barriers of what is possible like the Freuds. Anna Freud had a progressive through processes and it led to her success with the analysis of children on a larger scale. Publishing her first text in 1927 on her techniques that she used during child analysis, she finally set left her mark. Spending the rest of life refining her methods and studying in depth the extremities of childhood behavior, she backed it up with analysis of adults as well to make sure she was on the right track.
Expanding on her father’s most widely recognized work “The Ego and The Id” that was published in 1923 she spent her time focusing on his thoughts and is known to many in the field as an extension of Sigmund. She became to gain a following of individuals that began looking into her work. By 1936 she published “The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense” which during the time period was one of the biggest hits that the field of psychology has ever seen. To this day, her work is the foundation of psychoanalytic ego psychology. As the war and politics spurred up, so did her troubles at home. Her mother passed away and her father had been diagnosed with cancer of the jaw of which he suffered with up until his death.
Dorothy Burlingham, an American woman who left her husband in America to come to Vienna befriended Anna and the relationship spurred over time. She was a mother of four children which slowly became part of the Freud household. Through the rest of Anna’s life, Dorothy had been by her side. Anna was so focused on her career and keeping up with her research that she herself was not able to have a normal personal life. Although it is rumored that perhaps the notion that the relationship between Dorothy and Anna had been heterosexual it would play in line that it wasn’t. Anna did speak about how her relationship with her father was so in depth, through her childhood and even her professional career that there would not be a man that would satisfy that need that her father fulfilled for her.
It is important to keep in mind that with all of this going on, the Nazi’s was busy at work in the region. She ended up losing four of her sisters and also having a run in with the Gestapo of her own. Knowing the importance of her work at the time and how well known she was, the Nazi’s did not dare hurt Sigmund and Anna and they ended up escaping the numerous occasions and run-ins. She and Dorothy at that point decided to go full force into her career to escape the tragedies’ around her. Her crowning achievement throughout her life, the peak of her career was the creation of the Hampstead Child Therapy Center. This center was the epicenter of psychoanalytic thought at the time and it was the main headquarters for the treatment, research and analytic training. Throughout her life, she came up with a collected amount of eight volumes of text in which in studies revolving around children and their psychosexual development. Anna Freud lived her life in with the worldwide recognition of her father, which thus was a catalyst for her to devote her life to his studies and continue the work that she grew up around. Receiving ten honorary doctorates throughout her life, the world could see her hard work day in and day out.
Throughout her life, Anna lived with a purpose. Although she had been in many disagreements with Melanie Klein, she focused on her work and devoted her life to science. She is credited with many achievements throughout her life, and without the influence of Sigmund and Anna the realm of psychology would not be the same. From birth, her life featured segments of chaos, which she fought back every single time and her resilient personality brought her through many events that would have destroyed the common person. All of her long hours and her dedication to the field we owe to her, her drive and determination are what made her one of the most influential people at the time, and even today.
Works Cited
Burger, Jerry M. Personality. San Francisco, CA: Cengage Learning, 2019. Print.
Blazek, Matej. "Emotions as Practice: Anna Freud's Child Psychoanalysis and Thinking–doing Children's Emotional Geographies." Emotion, Space and Society 9.1 (2013): 24-32. Web. (PEER REVIEWED)
Cherry, Kendra. “Why Anna Freud Is One of the Most Important Psychologists in History.” Verywell Mind, www.verywellmind.com/anna-freud-biography-1895-1982-2795536.
PSYCHOMEDIA – JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN PSYCHOANALYSIS – Patrizia Cupelloni – Anna and Her Father, www.psychomedia.it/jep/number10-11/cupelloni.htm.
Fine, Reuben. “Anna Freud (1895-192).” American Psychologist, vol. 40, no. 2, Feb. 1985, pp. 230-232. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1037/h0092196. (PEER REVIEWED)
“Sigmund Freud.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 4 Dec. 2017, www.biography.com/people/sigmund-freud-9302400.