She is one of the pioneers of child psychoanalysis: Who is Anna Freud?

Austrian-born British psychoanalyst. She was born on December 2, 1895, in Vienna. She studied in Vienna to become a teacher and psychoanalyst. Since she also taught primary school for a while, she tested what she learned about children.

Anna Freud (3 December 1895 – 9 October 1982) was a British psychoanalyst of Austrian-Jewish descent. She was born in Vienna, the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays. She followed the path of her father and contributed to the field of psychoanalysis. Alongside Hermine Hug-Hellmuth and Melanie Klein, she may be considered the founder of psychoanalytic child psychology.

In 1922 she became a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. In 1925 she began to manage the educational institute of the association. After the German armies invaded Austria in 1938, she fled to London with her Jewish family and became British. She opened a hostel for orphans and orphans in London. Between 1940-1945 she assumed the management of the dormitory. She founded the Hampstead Child Therapy Education Center and Clinic in 1947 and became its head in 1952. She gave lectures as visiting professor at Yale University Law School and Child Research Center between 1963-1970. She attended many conferences in the USA and Europe. She received honorary doctorate degrees from universities such as Yale, Columbia, Vienna, and Chicago. She became the honorary president of the International Psychoanalytic Association. She worked on the compilation of her father's works, as well as the many books and articles she published. She was also the editor-in-chief of the journal The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child.

Adopting the principle of carrying out theoretical study and practice together, Anna Freud had the opportunity to closely observe the behavior of children of various ages from various environments during her long years of research. While living in Vienna, she studied the nascent psychoanalytic movement in full detail. As a result, she saw that the psychoanalytic methods applied to adults may be insufficient when it comes to children, and moreover, they may lead to misdiagnoses. She found that behavior that was seen as normal in one stage of childhood can be considered diseased when it occurs in an adult in a similar form.

Anna Freud's study of defense mechanisms is important both for understanding the structure of the ego (I) and for child psychoanalysis. Repression is the defense mechanism that Anna Freud emphasizes most, which she unconsciously applies against the facts that she has learned to be frightening and dangerous for herself in her interaction with her environment. In a very young child, this phenomenon manifests itself in the form of denial, while in an older child, it can be observed as escaping from self-threatening environments. The adult human's isolation from various environments can be explained in a similar way. Anna Freud concludes from this that there are changes in the functioning of the defense mechanism with age. The nature of the hazard source is also an important factor in determining the mechanism used. An example of the phenomenon of identification with the source of danger is that the child who is afraid of the ghost puts herself in the place of the ghost. The main conclusion Freud drew from these investigations is the relationship between defense mechanisms and the development of the ego. While the use of certain defense mechanisms in some conditions indicates normal behavior, in some cases it can be considered an indicator of a pathological phenomenon.

Another inference made by Anna Freud about differentiating normal and pathological behaviors is those developmental directions that can show the development of the ego can be determined in humans. The concept of “direction of development” includes all the phenomena such as emotional maturation, gaining the independence of the body, making friends, and playing constructive games in the formation of a harmonious personality. The differences seen from child to child in the direction of development are due to some internal reasons and some external effects. It is impossible to explain all of them according to a pattern. Although this concept has not been accepted definitively, it has been a guide for pedagogues and educators.

Anna Freud, in her studies on blind children, investigated the effect of vision on child development. War

She also took care of the children who were separated from their mothers during her years, and as a result of this, she came to the conclusion that the continuous interruption of the relationship with the mother was a factor delaying the development of the child. She took care to develop all her research in relation to families. She emphasized that pedagogues, educators, and child psychoanalysts should consider the child's personality as a whole.

Anna Freud is also one of the first practitioners of the personality identification (profile) method, which provides new possibilities for psychoanalysis. Her research contributed significantly to the development of ego psychology and psychoanalysis.