Women's History Month: Anna Freud

Happy Thursday, beauties! And Happy Women's History Month! Today, the spotlight will be on Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund and the founder of child psychoanalysis. 

                                    (Arriving in Paris in 1938, with her father).
                                                  (Credit: BBC News)

Born in Vienna on December 3, 1895, Anna was the last of Sigmund and Martha Freud's six children. Though not extremely close with her mother or siblings, Anna did have a close bond with her father. It was through this bond that she was first introduced to psychoanalysis at the age of 14. Not really one for school, Anna learned more from her father and his guests at their home, picking up languages such as German, French and Italian. 

In 1918, Anna began psychoanalysis with her father, and started to become seriously involved in his profession. In 1922, her analysis was completed, when she then presented a paper to the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, and became a member. She began her own practice in 1923, dedicated to the psychoanalysis of children, and two years later, was teaching at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Training Institute. Anna was secretary of the International Psychoanalytical Association from 1925 to 1934, continuing her work with children and conducting seminars and conferences. 

Due to the Nazi harassment of Jews in Vienna, the Freud's fled to London in 1938. She continued her work in London while simultaneously caring for her father, who succumbed to cancer in the fall of 1939. Shortly thereafter, during World War II, Anna set up a center for young victims of war called the Hampstead War Nursery, where children would get foster care. Due to her work with Hampstead, Anna published a series of studies on the impact that stress has on children and the ability to find affections when their parents could not give them. 

From the 1950's onward, Anna would travel to America, giving lectures and teaching. In 1959, she became a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also taught seminars on crime and family at Yale Law School in the 1970's, leading to Beyond the Best Interests of the Child, published in 1973 with Joseph Goldstein and Albert Solnit. 

Anna Freud passed away on October 9, 1982 in London. A year later, in 1983, her collected works were published, and a year after that, in 1984, the Hampstead center was renamed the "Anna Freud Center." Her home in London became the Freud Museum, per her wishes, and is dedicated to her father. 

                                               (Credit: Glogster)