Anna Freud and Observation: Memoirs of Her Colleagues from the Hampstead War Nurseries

ABSTRACT

Initially, Anna Freud did not wish to carry out systematic observations; rather, she wanted to be in the field while maintaining an analytical attitude with a free-floating attention. Based on memories of her employees Manna Friedmann, Anneliese Schnurman, Hansi Kennedy, and Joyce Robertson, this article discusses the way in which Anna Freud taught them to observe the children. She also observed those very colleagues who were observing, in order to be able to convey to them, a psychoanalytic view of the children.     

Commentary on Federica Melandri’s “Milk and Tears”

ABSTRACT

Dr. Melandri’s use of the 2001 Revised Diagnostic Profile to assess 5-year-old Leo brought forth different emphases than Anna Freud’s original Diagnostic Profile (1965). Dr. Melandri’s explicit sharing of how she reacted to and felt in Leo’s presence is far more explicit. Another difference is how fluently Dr. Melandri integrates metapsychology with diverse clinical theories to describe Leo’s development. Had the original Diagnostic Profile been used, there would have been greater emphasis on libidinal phase development, such as orality, anality, phallic, and oedipal development, not to mention dynamic and structural achievements. This essay asks: “what’s at stake?” regarding these different emphases. The author concludes with a few remarks in general about the 2001 Revised Profile, including comments about the fate of Freud’s and Anna Freud’s radical vision.     

Freud's paternity crises

This article reexamines the interpretation of the significance of the Aliquis slip and related materials in terms of a family crisis in 1900 involving Freud, Anna Freud Bernays and their youngest sister Paula. It contends that Ernest Jones and Anna Freud later hid this story from history, largely for family reasons. It supports this contention by drawing on Ernest Jones and Anna Freud's archived letters, Anna Freud Bernays’ memoirs, the complete Freud‐Fliess letters and other historical sources and compares them to The Origins of Psychoanalysis and to Ernest Jones’ biography of Freud. It shows how events during the crisis manifested themselves in Freud's On Dreams, the Aliquis slip, and the banking error story. It rejects Peter Swales’ hypotheses about Freud and Minna Bernays being part of the Aliquis slip, but accepts Didier Anzieu's idea that Minna Bernays was the subject of the banking error story. It shows that the motive for the historical repression of the story began with Freud, but was over determined and included guilt and pain that developed when Paula and other sisters got caught up in the Nazi takeover of Austria.     

Anna Freud’s Diagnostic Profile: Then and Now

ABSTRACT

This article argues that Anna Freud’s diagnostic aim of assessing a child’s developmental status to obtain a picture of the child’s total personality remains central and relevant to contemporary child mental health. It introduces the work of a research group at the Anna Freud Centre which re-examined Anna Freud’s Provisional Diagnostic Profile (1965), in 2001 and again in 2016, to include contemporary developmental psychology and attachment research. The resulting 2016 revised Diagnostic Profile is published in this issue for the first time.     

Infantile sexuality: Its place in the conceptual developments of Anna Freud and Donald W. Winnicott

This essay explores the place of infantile sexuality in the theories of Anna Freud and Donald W Winnicott. Both Anna Freud and D.W. Winnicott incorporated and at the same time changed the classical psychoanalytic account of infantile sexuality and the instinctual drives. Whilst Anna Freud remained closer to her father's original conceptualization, she developed a multidimensional model of development which gave the drives a foundational status whist also maintaining their significance in giving meaning and texture to children's subjective experience. Winnicott also retained much of S. Freud's original theorizing except that in a fundamental way he turned it on its head when considering earliest development. For him the establishment of the self was paramount, and the drives and infantile sexuality merely served to give substance to that self.     

Freud and the Hammerschlag family: a formative relationship

From his obituary of Samuel Hammerschlag, we know of Freud's great veneration for his teacher of Jewish religion. However, not only Hammerschlag himself but his whole family had a formative influence on young Freud, who was deeply impressed by their humanity. This paper describes Freud's relationships with all the family members. In particular, it shows how warmly he felt towards the only daughter, Anna Hammerschlag, who was his patient for a while and whom he chose as a godmother for his youngest daughter Anna. By virtue of the crucial role she played in Freud's 'specimen dream' of July 1895 ('Irma's injection'), she also became as it were the godmother of Freud's magnum opus, The Interpretation of Dreams. All the known extant letters from Freud to members of the Hammerschlag family are published here for the first time in English translation.     

Anna Freud: The Hampstead War Nurseries and the role of the direct observation of children for psychoanalysis

The psychoanalytic tradition of direct observation of children has a long history, going back to the early 20th century, when psychoanalysis and the emerging field of 'child studies' came into fruitful contact in Freud's Vienna. As a leading figure in the attempted integration of direct observation with the new psychoanalytic knowledge emerging from the consulting room, Anna Freud played a crucial role in the emergence of this field. But her major contribution to the theory and practice of observing children came during the Second World War, when she founded the Hampstead War Nurseries. The author describes in detail this important period of Anna Freud's career, and discusses the impact it had on later work. He explores the theoretical contribution that Anna Freud made in the post-war years to the debate about the place of direct observation in psychoanalysis, and concludes that Anna Freud's 'double approach' (direct observation plus analytic reconstruction) still has a great deal to offer as a method of both psychoanalytic research and education.     

Observing,playing and supporting development: Anna Freud’s toddler groups past and present

This paper describes an approach to working therapeutically with parents and toddlers in groups as practiced at the Anna Freud Centre. By intervening early to prevent later disturbance, the parent–toddler groups continue the tradition begun by Anna Freud in the Jackson Nursery in Vienna, the War Nurseries in and around London, and the Hampstead Clinic following the Second World War. Common features include the commitment to working with children and their parents, to observation, training and research, and to finding techniques that address developmental needs, delays and disturbances. Just as children select the specific therapeutic elements they need from a classical child analytic setting, parents and toddlers select what they need from what Anna Freud described as the various ‘therapeutic possibilities’ provided by the parent–toddler groups. The parent–toddler relationship is supported during a period which is crucial for future development, difficulties are identified and addressed before they become entrenched, and, where necessary, timely referrals are made to clinical services on the basis of the trusting relationships developed between the staff and parents in the groups.     

The dual impact of Freud's death and Freud's death instinct theory on the history of psychoanalysis

Since I have ranged over a rather large territory in this presentation I will summarize my main points. I claim that the very way Freud created psychoanalysis made it impossible for it to continue to grow and develop as a unified movement after his death. Unlike other sciences, psychoanalysis had no way of differentiating its basic findings from what is yet to be discovered. I then reintroduced my differentiation between heretics, modifiers, and extenders, claiming that after Freud’s death there was less opportunity for heretics and more space for modifiers. I assigned a crucial role to the fact that Anna Freud did not succeed in expelling the Kleinians. In the second part of the paper I presented the view of those who made use of Freud’s death instinct theory and those who opposed it. Many analysts preferred to ignore dealing with it rather than state their opposition. My presentation was biased in favor of those who chose to work with the death instinct as a clinical reality,highlighting Ferenczi’s construction. I made the claim, so far as I know never made before, that Freud’s death instinct theory had a traumatic impact on the psychoanalytic movement because it greatly limited the belief in the curative power of our therapeutic work. After his announcement of the dual-instinct theory Freud withdrew his interest in psychoanalysis as a method of cure. By doing so he inflicted a narcissistic wound on psychoanalysis. I believe that the creativity of psychoanalysis will improve if we face this difficult chapter in our history.     

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore,or How I Learned to Embrace My Inner Minecraft

This article briefly describes the history of the use of toys in child psychotherapy, from its early years with Anna Freud and Melanie Klein through modern electronic devices. The function and purpose of the use of toys is discussed with an eye toward what is the same as the field’s early pioneers and what might be different. Ultimately, the author contends that it is how the players use the toys and games in their relationship that is primary, echoing sentiments voiced by Anna Freud many years ago before the advent of Minecraft, GoPro, and smartphones.     

Dreaming of freud: Ferenczi,freud, and an analysis without end

The beginning of this paper documents Sigmund Freud's pre-psychoanalytic experience as a ‘first hand’ observer of childhood behavior both professionally and as the patriarch of a large extended family in Vienna. During 1898, Freud was in the midst of an intensive correspondence with Wilhelm Fliess – his most trusted confidant, mentor and colleague – when he wrote, in part, about his sister Marie whose family was relocating in Berlin. She was apparently about to consult Fliess as her prospective physician. During the process, Freud voiced psychological assessments not only about his sister; but, also about her husband and their three daughters. The youngest among them was a 5-year old whom he characterized as “a rather gifted child, severely [hysterical]” (bracketed word in quotation juxtaposed for clarity).

Eleven years later, Freud wrote a case study about a 5-year old boy whose pseudonym, for publication purposes, was Little Hans. The life of Little Hans (as well as the lives of his parents) has been thoroughly examined and we now know something about how he matured as an adult. In a contrasting context, less is known about the ‘psychological trajectory’ of Freud's 5-year old niece who also distinguished herself in certain respects as she matured during her abbreviated later life. She remained the subject of documentable correspondence mailed to him by his youngest daughter Anna as well as foreboding prospects articulated in a letter he subsequently wrote to an English nephew.     

The ‘Matchbox School’ (1927–1932): Anna Freud and the idea of a ‘psychoanalytically informed education’∗

Of all the applications of psychoanalysis to various fields, perhaps none has been as important – or as fraught – as the application of psychoanalytic insights to education. This paper re-constructs some of the early debates around psychoanalysis and pedagogy that Anna Freud engaged with during the 1920s in Vienna, when the whole question of what education should be became a central issue for politicians, pedagogues and psychoanalysts alike. The paper focuses on the period leading up to the creation of the so-called ‘Matchbox School’, operating under Anna Freud's guidance between 1927 and 1932, and describes the influence of pioneers such as Seigfried Bernfeld and August Aichhorn. Compared to her more well-known work at the Hampstead War Nurseries during the Second World War, Anna Freud's involvement with this earlier educational experiment is relatively neglected. Yet one can argue that this short-lived project not only laid the foundation for much of Anna Freud's later work; it also had some far-reaching consequences, both for psychoanalysis and for the practice of progressive education.     

The Controversial Discussions: Edward Glover and the Origins of "Double-Barrelled Training"

I attempt to rehabilitate Edward Glover's historical reputation, based on unpublished interviews as well as recently found documentary material. This should make one of the defining moments in the history of British psychoanalysis more plausible. Glover was an eloquent heresy-hunter - against Jung, Rank, Klein, Alexander, and others - yet the polemical side of him represents only one aspect of his career. During the Controversial Discussions Glover was taking some of the burden for the way his leader Jones had run the British Society. In moving against Klein, Glover felt he was fulfilling Freud's own wishes, and that he was allied with the recently arrived Viennese contingent. After Glover's resignation in 1944, Jones split the opposition by appointing Anna Freud as Glover's successor as IPA Secretary. Subsequently Adrian Stephen and Donald Winnicott opposed Glover's even being allowed to speak at a psychoanalytic conference in Amsterdam; Anna Freud defended Glover's presence then. Glover's long struggle to be accepted as a member of the Swiss Society only went through in 1949, when Jones ceased being President of the IPA. Glover and Anna Freud regularly corresponded about setting up of the distinction between the "B" and "A" groups within the British Society. Meanwhile Glover, who had since the early 1930s been the de facto founder of the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency, used his administrative talents there. He successfully founded The British Journal of Delinquency with Miller and Mannheim. Unlike what happened at the British Society, Glover cooperated without problem at the ISTD and the Portman Clinic. Glover was not only an important and successful clinical analyst but also a pioneer in forensic psychiatry. In 1947 he was unofficially approached and asked to take over the Directorship of the New York Psychoanalytic Training Institute. When the proceedings of the Controversial Discussions were published in 1991, various myths had been established about what had happened. That Glover found himself caught in the middle was not only a personal tragedy but also a part of a much larger story.     

Peaceful schools

This article is based on the presentation Anna Lubelska made at the 12th International Conference on Children’s Spirituality. Anna is Director of Spiritual England which is a not for profit organisation set up in 2009. Its aim is to promote the importance of spirituality and to help increase access to opportunities for spiritual development. Its remit covers spirituality in all faiths and no faith. Anna worked for many years in community development and services for children and families. This year she started the Peaceful Schools Movement which encourages schools to become more peaceful. For example, schools are enabled to engage creatively with their pupils to design quiet rooms and gardens, alongside undertaking activities such as the practice of mindfulness and training in conflict resolution, all within the context of a whole-school ethos of dynamic peacefulness.     

Contributions to the history of psychology: LXXIV. Edith Banfield Jackson: a pioneer in psychoanalysis

Edith Jackson, recipient of one of Sigmund Freud's coveted rings, served him well as an ambassador for psychoanalysis. As a child psychiatrist for 25 years at the Yale School of Medicine, she developed the rooming-in plan which allowed parents and newborns to be together from birth. With Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham, she opened the Jackson Nursery, a precursor of American daycare centers. Among the most important people in developing the field of child psychology, Edith was one of the early psychologists who recognized the importance of satisfying the emotional as well as the physical needs of the newborn.     

Opening the church to the other: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s reception of Ernst Troeltsch

Many ecclesiologists assume that pluralisation is a problem for churches. By drawing on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s reception of Ernst Troeltsch, however, the author argues that pluralisation is instead a promise. Portraits which paint Bonhoeffer as ‘alternative’ to Troeltsch (and Troeltsch as ‘alternative’ to Bonhoeffer) have been proposed persistently. But in the ecclesiological explorations which Bonhoeffer elaborated in the 1920s and in the 1940s, Troeltsch’s impact on Bonhoeffer is neither simply negative nor simply positive – and should not be underestimated. The author aims to demonstrate that Bonhoeffer develops the ecclesiology which Troeltsch demanded in critical and creative discussion with him. Since it suggests that experiences of the other allow for encounters with God as much as encounters with God allow for experiences of the other, this ecclesiology provokes a re-thinking of pluralisation which might be important and instructive for the church in its current pluralised and pluralising contexts.     

Between practice and theory: Melanie Klein,Anna Freud and the development of child analysis

An examination of the early history of child analysis in the writings of Melanie Klein and Anna Freud reveals how two different and opposing approaches to child analysis arose at the same time. The two methods of child analysis are rooted in a differential emphasis on psychoanalytic theory and practice. The Kleinian method derives from the application of technique while the Anna Freudian method is driven by theory. Furthermore, by holding to the Freudian theory of child development Anna Freud was forced to limit the scope of child analysis, while Klein's application of Freudian practice has led to new discoveries about the development of the infant psyche.     

“淑女之争”与“君子协议”:回眸英国精神分析学会的“论战”

20世纪40年代,英国精神分析学会内部爆发一场影响全世界精神分析学发展的"战争"。以Anna Freud和Melanie Klein各自为首的精神分析师团体围绕潜意识幻想、本能与力比多以及精神分析培训与教学等一系列主题展开激烈争论,即历史上著名的"Freud-Klein论战"。这场"论战"就精神分析培训问题达成协议,并直接导致克莱因学派、维也纳学派和独立学派三"组"鼎立的英国精神分析时局。"论战"促使了客体关系精神分析与自我心理学的分离,推动了精神分析研究从驱力模式向关系模式的范式转变,奠定了后续精神分析运动发展的格局。     

Measuring change in psychotherapeutic work with a traumatised child on the autistic spectrum

This paper describes a developmental psychotherapy undertaken with a physically disabled latency boy, with a background of significant developmental deficits and multiple psychological trauma, diagnosed by CAMHS as being on the autistic spectrum. Using an assessment framework following Anna Freud’s conceptualisation of developmental lines, pathology as a deviation from the norm was formulated. Assessments using standard psychological tests were made at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of his therapy, in order to study the changes in his personality development. Standard assessment findings were also used to portray the fragmentation of the boy’s psyche in a concrete fashion, in order to facilitate his re-integration.