ANNA FREUD: BIOGRAPHY, THEORIES, DEFENSE MECHANISMS, WORKS - PSYCHOLOGY - 2024

Anna Freud (1895-1982) was an Austrian-British psychologist whose work focused on psychology applied to children. She was the youngest daughter of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis; and throughout her life she devoted herself to deepening her work and applying it in areas where it had not traditionally been used.

In addition to creating psychoanalysis for children and one of the first psychologists specializing in childhood, Anna Freud also made important contributions in the field of consciousness and the ego. Many of her studies were focused on understanding how these two mental phenomena are related to thoughts, ideas and impulses.

Among his publications, the 1937 book The self and defense mechanisms stands out. In it, he defended the idea that the main way that people have to deal with negative ideas, impulses and emotions is repression. In this work, he investigated how this defense mechanism develops from childhood, as well as some other alternatives that we can use on occasions.

For much of her life, Anna Freud worked alongside her father developing his and her own theories. In 1938, she escaped with him from Nazi rule in Austria, and settled in London, where she created the Hampstead Children's Therapy Clinic in 1947. During the following decades she served as its director, while carrying out numerous research on child psychology.

Biography

Early years

Anna Freud was born on December 3 in Vienna, in 1895. She was the youngest of the six children that Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, had with his wife Martha. During her early years, Anna kept her distance from her siblings, especially her sister Sofia, with whom she vied for her father's attention.

In her childhood, Anna Freud suffered from numerous health problems. There are not many records on what these were exactly, but it is believed that they could have included some such as depression or eating disorders.

For this reason, during his early years he spent a lot of time during summers in health camps, where various professionals tried to improve his situation.

In her childhood, Anna Freud did not maintain good relations with her mother, declaring on several occasions that she got along better with her nanny. On the contrary, she always saw her father as a reference figure and someone to look up to, which probably influenced her career decisions later on.

After finishing high school, Anna Freud studied to be a teacher, and later traveled to Italy and England to see the world. Then, in 1914, she began teaching at the institute she attended as a young man.

Career

Sigmund and Anna Freud, at the VI International Congress of Psychoanalysis, The Hague 1920.

Although at first she was not very interested in psychology, Anna Freud began researching this field when her father began to psychoanalyze it in 1918, as part of his research for a scientific article that he would publish in 1922.

After the presentation of this work by her father, Anna joined the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and began to practice therapy with children privately. After just two years of doing so, she was offered a job as a teacher at the Vienna Institute for Psychoanalytic Training, thus beginning her career as a psychologist.

Anna Freud with her father walking

Several years later, in 1935, Anna Freud became the director of the same Institute. The following year she published her first book, The self and defense mechanisms. In this work, she laid the foundations for ego psychology, and with it she managed to make a name for herself as an important researcher.

Life in exile

Due to her family's Jewish origin, both Anna Freud and her family had to emigrate to England in 1938 due to the Nazi occupation of Austria. Upon arriving there, she founded the Hampstead War Infirmary, a center that cared for orphans and sought to create healthy attachment relationships for children who had been victims of war.

During his time at this center, he became even more interested in the field of child psychology. For example, he published his observations on how stress affects children, and on the importance of fostering attachment relationships in cases where children have not been able to create a healthy bond with their parents.

Many of the observations and investigations that he carried out during this period were published in his work Normality and pathology in childhood. In addition, as of 1947 the institute began to teach psychoanalysis courses, and a clinic associated with it was created that offered therapy services for children.

Anna Freud with Melanie Klein

During the last years of her life, Anna Freud spent most of her time teaching, giving courses, and researching. She traveled several times to the United States, where, for example, she taught at Yale University. There she collaborated with researchers such as Joseph Goldstein and Albert Solnit, with whom she published the book Beyond the best interests of the child.

When Anna Freud passed away in 1982, she did so having become one of the leading contributors to the field of psychology in her time.

Theories

Anna Freud at the Psychoanalysis Congress in 1957. Source: See page for author

Child psychology

One of Anna Freud's main professional interests was child psychology. During her years researching this topic, she created numerous theories related to it, which would later lead to many of the most important discoveries in the history of this field.

For example, Freud found that children often have different symptoms than adults even in the presence of the same problem. Therefore, he believed that it was also necessary to use different therapeutic techniques with them. This was in contrast to the official view of the time, which viewed children simply as adults with undeveloped bodies.

In addition, he was one of the first people to notice the negative consequences that attachment problems could have on children. Her research with children who had suffered cases of neglect laid the foundations of what would later become modern attachment theory, one of the most important in this field.

Anna's father, Sigmund Freud, had described various phases of psychosexual development in children; but she had done it in a theoretical way and based on the testimonies of adults. Through her own research, Anna refined this theory and provided much more information on each of the stages.

Nature of mind

Anna Freud in 1956.

In addition to studying childhood development and the stages that children go through throughout their lives, Anna Freud also spent time developing her father's theories about the way the human mind is structured.

According to Sigmund Freud, our mind is divided into three parts: the id, the ego and the superego. The ego would be in charge of controlling our most basic instincts, basically that of life (sexual desire, hunger, search for survival) and that of death (aggression, violence, self-mutilation).

The superego, on the other hand, would be related to morality and ideas about what is acceptable and what is not. Both this and the id would be unconscious, which means that we cannot access them directly. Rather, the self is conscious and is engaged in mediating between the other two parts of the mind.

Anna Freud devoted many efforts to studying the components of the human mind, although most of her work on this topic was related to the ego and the way in which it manages the conflicts between the id and the superego. This is how she developed her theories on defense mechanisms.

Defense mechanisms

The other field in which Anna Freud made important contributions was that of defense mechanisms. One of the basic premises of psychoanalysis is the idea that our unconscious mind uses certain psychological strategies to defend itself against ideas, feelings and impulses that it understands to be harmful.

Defense mechanisms can also help us deal with desires that we think are not acceptable; that is, to those situations in which the id and the superego come into conflict. Because of this, many of the times they appear are related to sexuality, one of the most conflictive fields for most people.

Anna Freud put a lot of work into researching the main defense mechanisms, and her discoveries continue to be used in therapy today. Next we will see which are the most important.

Repression

The most basic defense mechanism is simply to suppress unpleasant thoughts, feelings and impulses that we think are going to bring us unwanted consequences. It can also be used with those id desires that are not approved by the superego, and therefore are considered immoral or inappropriate.

An example of repression would be the denial by a homosexual person of his affective inclinations. Having grown up in a society that views same-sex relationships as negative or shameful, an individual who wants them may hide this fact from himself so that he does not have to confront his own limiting beliefs on the subject.

Projection

The projection consists of attributing to another person the own characteristics that we consider negative. In this way, we alleviate our own guilt for having them. This defense mechanism works because it helps us transform the negative feelings that our desires produce when they conflict with the ideas of the superego.

For example, a person who has aggressive ideas and fantasies could be much more attentive to the aggressive behaviors of other individuals. In this way, you could justify your bad mood and negative feelings by telling yourself that other people are dangerous, which would make it necessary to be aware of them.

Displacement

It is the act of transferring negative emotions to an object that is not the one that caused them in the first place. For example, an individual who pays for the anger that his mother has generated with his therapist would be using this defense mechanism.

Scrolling is generally used with negative emotions, such as anger, sadness, or guilt. Its main function is to allow us to deal with feelings that can be overwhelming in situations that we cannot control. For example, a man who wants to yell at his boss could use scrolling and instead pay for his bad mood with his children.

Sublimation

Another of the most important defense mechanisms is sublimation, which consists of carrying out a socially acceptable action as a way of expressing a desire that conflicts with the superego. According to Freud and his daughter Anna, this is the principle behind most art forms.

According to these researchers, a painter for example would be using his brush to express desires on which he cannot act. Depending on the content of his paintings, it could be possible to deduce what are the needs that he is sublimating.

Regression

The most complex defense mechanism is the one that involves returning on a psychological level to an earlier stage of development. A classic example is that of children who, through trauma, lose skills that they have already acquired.

In principle, regression would only occur in very extreme cases, in which the person has suffered a very serious trauma that has caused him to develop very negative emotions. Therefore, it is rare to observe this defense mechanism outside of therapy.

Plays

Below we will see a list of the main published works of Anna Freud. These cover many different areas, although they focus primarily on child psychology and ego functioning.

- Introduction to psychoanalysis: readings for child analysts and teachers (1922 - 1935).

- The self and defense mechanisms (1936).

- Research at Hampstead Child Therapy Clinic and other works (1956 - 1965).

- Normality and pathology in childhood: diagnosis and development (1965).

- Problems of psychoanalytic training, diagnosis, and therapy technique (1966 - 1970).

References

1. "Anna Freud Biography" in: VeryWell Mind. Retrieved on: October 21, 2019 from VeryWell Mind: verywellmind.com.
2. "Anna Freud" in: Famous Psychologists. Retrieved on: October 21, 2019 from Famous Psychologists: famouspsychologists.com.
3. "Anna Freud (1895-1982)" in: Good Therapy. Retrieved on: October 21, 2019 from Good Therapy: goodtherapy.org.
4. "Anna Freud" in: Britannica. Retrieved on: October 21, 2019 from Britannica: britannica.com.
5. "Anna Freud" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: October 21, 2019 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.