History of Modern Psychology: Anna Freud

History of Modern Psychology: Anna Freud

Introduction

Anna Freud was born in December 3rd, 1895 in Vienna Austria. She was the youngest child of Sigmund Freud and was the closest of all the children of her father. She was not that close to her mother and siblings and was said to have a tense relationship with them. Anna received little education and was being taught at school. The major study and teachings that she learned were from her father and his friends. She spoke five different languages and started to read her father's work at the age of 15.

After her education Anna Freud was hired as a trainee in the same school that she studied. She was a trainee for two years after being hired as a teacher. In the same time Anna started translating some of his father's work into German that was a reason of developing her interest in child psychology and psychoanalysis. In 1938 Anna left from Austria. Her father was in a critical situation as he was diagnosed with Jaw cancer. Anna was arranging a family immigration for London. Her father died in 1939. During the war Anna got the opportunity to serve the children who were victims of the war. Anna created a centre for them named as “Hampstead War nursery”. Her contribution to the children was later seen in her writings as she wrote a series of publications that was based on the impact that children had from the war and the substitute methods in case of the unavailability of parents.

Contributions

Anna Freud made huge contributions in the field of psychology and psychoanalysis. Her main contribution was to ego and child psychology and her work reflects the influence that she gained from her father. One of the greatest publications made by Anna was “The Ego and the mechanisms of Defense”. This book illustrated how the human defense systems work. Some emphasis was also made on the defense system of children. This book created a movement in the studies of psychoanalysis. This is now known as the ego psychology. The reason for her interest in psychology came from her father. Anna staying in the shadow of her father got more interested in basic psychology and the function of ego in human psychology. She was not only a writer but a practitioner as well. Anna was also interested in the analysis of infants. According to Anna the children are very close to their parents and a therapist cannot be that important part in the child's life. According to her the best way to deal with it was through caring of the child. A therapist cannot be a friend or a substitute parent to the child. However what a therapist can do is to nurture the child as a caring adult. What Anna did that was difficult in the case of children was that while analyzing children we can see that the symbolic abilities of the child are not as prominent as the ...