Study of Anna Freud's Life

Bahn, Geon Ho

Abstract

In order to analyze Anna Freud's influence on child psychoanalysis, it would be useful to analyze her life. Anna was a successor of Sigmund Freud and also pioneer in development of child psychoanalysis. She worked with Dorothy Burlingham, whom she met when they were both young, throughout her life and developed many theories on child psychoanalysis. During and after the Second World War, they proved many theories using the examples collected from Hamstead Nursery and Hamstead child therapy sessions. She also had an impact on American child psychoanalysis after spreading her theories in Vienna and London. Her personal life had a few peculiarities. First, she was a very unique analysand through the history of psychoanalysis, who was analyzed by her own father: It is inevitable that these environmental factors influenced her theories and practices. Second, after her father's death, Dorothy Burlingham's family lived with Anna Freud till Burlingham's death. Third, she had tragic family history. She lost her four aunts during the Second World War and her siblings moved to foreign countries as refugees. It would be interesting to see how these environmental factors influenced her analysis and theories that still affect modern child psychoanalysis today.