Anna Freud: Psychoanalyst and Pioneer Anna Freud is considered a pioneer in the development of child psychoanalysis. Her work focused on how the ego functions in averting anxiety and painful ideas, impulses and feelings. Many credit her as being one of the primary ego psychoanalysts that stepped 'outside of the block' and delivered a fresh and new perspective on the psychology of personality.

Among her more memorable works included" The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence" which challenges traditional psychoanalytic thought. Her contributions are primarily in the realm of child therapy. Anna Freud is credited with developing a theory that helps explain among other things, communication patterns and personality/behavioral development in children.

Biographical Sketch

An Austrian-British psychoanalyst, Anna Freud was the youngest daughter of Sigmund Freud and his wife Martha (Wesley, 1992). She is most well-known for her work with children. Born in Vienna in 1895, Freud first worked as a children's teacher while working with her father to understand and develop psychoanalytic theory (Encarta, 1995; Wesley, 1992). It took several years before Freud discovered an active interest in psychoanalysis, and when she did she preferred to continue her work with children rather than focus on adults as her father had.

Her first "serious involvement" in the field...

At that point Anna began working very intimately with her father and establishing and maintaining many similar friendships within the psychoanalytic community. She attended the International Psychoanalytical Congress at the Hague in 1920 with her father, and worked intimately with him in many respects (Freud, 2004).
Anna began her own psychoanalytical practice in 1923 and began teaching a seminar at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Training Institute (Freud, 2004). She would later become the director of the Vienna Psychoanalytical training Institute in 1935 (Freud, 2004). In between this period of time Anna Freud served as General Secretary for the International Psychoanalytical Association and offered many seminars on the subject of child analysis (Freud, 2004).

Contributions to Psychology

Her work including "The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence" examined ego functions and moved away from many of the traditional foundations of psychoanalytical thought thereby "establishing her reputation as a pioneering theoretician" (Freud, 2004).

Anna's work is well-known for emphasizing the function of the ego in personality development "and emphasized the use of defense mechanisms such as repression" (Encarta, 1995). Anna Freud's work focuses on finding an explanation…