For C. George boeree. Updated: 25 April 2019
It seems that every time Freud had already chosen his successor, the nominee would abandon him. At least this happened with Jung and Adler. However, meanwhile, her daughter Anna was reading her works, she embarked on analysis with her father and belatedly outlining her career as a psychoanalyst. Anna also became her caregiver from the moment her father developed cancer in 1923. She would later become his symbolic successor.
Keep reading this article from PsicologíaOnline, if you want to know more about an emblem in the Personality Theories in Psychology: Anna Freud.
Unlike Jung and Adler, Anna stayed true to her father's basic ideas, Sigmund Freud. However, she was more concerned with the mental dynamics that of its structure and was particularly fascinated by the place of the Self in all this. After all, Freud directed most of his efforts to the Id and the unconscious part of psychic life. As she rightly stated, the Self is the "place of observation" from which we observe the work of the Id and the Superego, as well as the unconscious in general. For this reason, Anna deserves a separate study.
The author is probably best known for her book The Self and Defense Mechanisms, in which he presents a particularly clear description of how defenses work, also including special attention to the use of defenses in adolescents. The section on defenses in the Freud chapter of this book is based almost entirely on both Anna's and Sigmund's work.
This emphasis on the Self started a movement in psychoanalytic circles called ego psychology which arguably represents the majority of Freudians today. (You could say that the current trend in American psychoanalysis is this. In Europe, there are many followers of this current, although the "old schools" still survive extensively. N.T.).
This arises and is supported by the early works of Freud, but is complemented by a more current, ordinary and practical vision of the world of the Ego. In this sense, Freudian theory can be applied not only to psychopathology, but also to related fields such as social and evolutionary. Erik Erikson is the best known example of ego psychology.
But Anna Freud was not primarily a theorist. His interests were more practical and much of his effort was directed towards the analysis of children and adolescents, managing to perfect the technique. After all, his father had devoted himself exclusively to adult patients. What can we do with a child who suffers in the present the crises and traumas, as well as the fixations are not mere recollections of the past ?.
First, the child's relationship with the therapist it is different. His parents make up a large part of his life; a part that the therapist cannot usurp. But, the therapist cannot become another child. He remains an authority figure for the patient. So Anna devised a technique to handle this "transfer" problem, using the form as natural as possible: being a caring adult, not a new playmate, not a parent substitute. Currently, his approach to the patient can still be considered a bit authoritarian, but it makes more sense than others.
Another problem with the analysis of children is that their symbolic abilities are not as developed as in adults. In fact, the youngest have problems when it comes to verbalizing their emotional difficulties. Even the oldest have trouble hiding their conflicts behind complex symbols, as adults do. After all, boys' problems are set in the "here and now"; there is not much time to build defenses. Therefore, problems are closer to the surface and tend to be expressed more directly, less symbolically, in behavioral and emotional terms.
Most of her contributions to the study of personality come from her experience in the Hamstead Child Therapy Clinic (Hamstead Children's Therapy Clinic) in London that she helped build herself. In this place, Anna realized that one of the biggest problems was communication between therapists: While adult problems were communicated through traditional labels, children's problems were impossible.
Since these children's problems are more immediate, Anna reconceptualized them in terms of the child's movements on a developmental timeline. A child develops and grows by relating to his parents through their eating behaviors, personal hygiene, play styles, relationships with other children, and so on. These behaviors are considered healthy.
When one aspect of development is considerably more durable than others, the clinician may assume that there is a problem, describing the particular area of care.
Most of Anna Freud's work is in The Writings of Anna Freud, consists of a seven-volume compendium of her books and her articles, including The Self and Defense Mechanisms, as well as his works on the analysis of children and adolescents.
She is a great writer, she does not get involved in technicalities in most of her work and she presents many clinical cases as examples.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
