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Anna Freud  

Anna Freud was born on December 3, 1895 and died on October 9, 1982 at the age of 96

 

Adoption History: Anna Freud (1895-1982) (Adoption History: Anna Freud (1895-1982).            Retrieved from http://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/people/AnnaFreud.htm

Katlin Graham

 

Notable professional dates for the psychologist:

  • 1923- She was accepted into the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society

    • After she was accepted, she started a private practice and began working with children. This is when her interest in child psychology was first sparked. During this time, psychology was primarily male dominated and she was one of the great women psychologists that helped to pave the way for others.

  • 1924- Anna Freud began teaching at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Training Institute.

    • The teaching position continued to allow her to explore her interest in the behavior and psychology of children. There were very few studies done of child psychology before and she was one of the first.

  • 1927- Freud became a secretary at the International Psychoanalytical Association.

    • This was significant because it was a stepping stone that led to her obtaining a new and higher position in 1935.  

  • 1935- Freud became the director of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Training Institute.

    • Once again, continued to pave the way for future women psychologists. She was able to step out of her fathers shadow and become her own. She obtained a very respected role in the institute and her studies continued to attract more attention.

  • 1936- She published Ego & the Mechanisms of Defense.

    • One of her first publications. She explained many of the behaviors of children from her years of studies. It helped to establish her as an individual thinker and also warranted for future studies in ego psychology.

  • 1938- She and her family emigrated to England when the Nazis invaded Austria

    • She founded The Hampstead War Nursery there. It was an institution that provided foster care for the younger victims of WWII. The institution also provided services that encouraged attachment and bonding for the victims.

  • 1947- The institution began to offer courses to mothers and children and a clinic was built to provide services to children with psychological needs.

  • 1956-1965- Freud published Research at the Hampstead Child-Therapy Clinic & Other Papers

  • 1965- Freud published Normality & Pathology in Childhood: Assessments of Development.

    • Freud finally published her studies from her years of work during the war. The paper and books explained how children handle stress and emphasized the importance of foster attachments for children with absent parents.

 

Cherry, Kendra. "Anna Freud (Daughter of Sigmund) Biography (1895-1982)." (2014).                Retrieved from <http://psychology.about.com/profilesofmajorthinkers/                                      p/bio_annafreud.htm>.

 

"Find the Right Therapist." Anna Freud Biography (2011). Retrieved from                                    <http://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/anna-freud.html#>.

Lulu Fan

 

Description of the socio/politico backdrop of the time period:

  • In 1938 Anna Freud and her family fled from Austria due to the increasingly harassment of Jews

  • With Sigmund Freud’s health deteriorating from jaw cancer, Anna made a plan to get her family to London.

  • The Holocaust gave Anna Freud the major topic of on the deprivation of parental care on children, in return setting up the The Hampstead War Nursery

http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/afreud.htm

 

Adoption History: Anna Freud (1895-1982) (Adoption History: Anna Freud (1895-1982).            Retrieved from http://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/people/AnnaFreud.htm

Katlin Graham

 

Major contributions of research/experimentation:

     Anna Freud's major contributions were in the fields of child and ego psychology. She started young with listening in on lectures and talks of her dad and his collegues. Despite being a woman, she was able to step out from under her father's shadow and share her intuitive and individual thinking and ideas with the world. She first started observing the behavior of children in her private practice. She was able to observe and study child psychology more when she became a teacher at the Vienna institute. Another major contribution was when she moved to England, where she founded The Hampstead War Nursery. The institute provided foster care for the young victims of WWII. The institute also taught mothers and a clinic was built to provide services to children with psychological needs. She later published works that described her studies in the years she was in England at the institute. Her works explained how children handle stress and emphasized the importance of foster attachments for children with absent parents. Anna Freud made significant contributions to psychology and her work is still being applied and referenced to today. She is regarded as the founder of child psychoanalysis. 

 

Cherry, Kendra. "Anna Freud (Daughter of Sigmund) Biography (1895-1982)." (2014).                Retrieved from <http://psychology.about.com/profilesofmajorthinkers/                                      p/bio_annafreud.htm>.

 

"Find the Right Therapist." Anna Freud Biography (2011). Retrieved from                                    <http://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/anna-freud.html#>.

Lulu Fan

 

Key terms/concepts associated with psychologist:

  • Psychoanalysis- method of treating mental illness, originating with Freud, in which a psychiatrist helps a patient discover and confront the causes of the illness

  • Child Psychology-  study of psychological characteristics of infants and children and the application of general psychological principles to infancy and childhood

  • Hamstead Child Therapy Clinic- where most of her contributions to the study of personality come out of her work; she helped set this up

  • The Writings of Anna Freud- a seven-volume collection of her books and papers where most of her work is contained

  • Defense Mechanisms- a tactic that is developed by the human ego to help protect against anxiety

 

"Biography of Anna Freud" (2013). Retrived from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer                      /annafreud.html

Gabi Coward

 

School of Thought/Perspective:

     Anna Freud published an influential study of the “ways and means by which the ego wards off unpleasure and anxiety” brings out what exactly her school of thought is said to be associated with. She examined the different types of ego functions in her book. The book helped move away from the different psychoanalytical thought in the drives which became a big start and founding work of ego psychology. This book led her to being established as a pioneering theoretician.

 

Cherry, Kendra. "Anna Freud (Daughter of Sigmund) Biography (1895-1982)." (2014).                Retrieved from <http://psychology.about.com/profilesofmajorthinkers/                                      p/bio_annafreud.htm>.

Gabi Coward

 

Stance on nature vs. nurture:

     People that agree with the nature side say that whatever DNA and genotype we are born with will determine who we are and also our personality traits. People that agree with the nurture side agree that we are born with “a blank state” and we learn about life while acquiring different attributes as we learn about different experiences and interactions in the world. Anna Freud was for both nature and nurture. In her studies of adoption, she saw that children would exhibit certain behaviors such as the sucking of the thumb or a rocking back and forth, trying to comfort themselves. Also how children behave during puberty with trying to suppress certain needs.

 

Adoption History: Anna Freud (1895-1982) (Adoption History: Anna Freud (1895-1982).            Retrieved from http://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/people/AnnaFreud.htm

Princess Haile

 

Unit most likely to cover his/her contributions:

The unit most likely to cover her contributions would be in unit 9 Developmental Psychology and unit 10 personality. Freud and her research of children have a good basis for the development of a human and also the personality of a person can form as an infant.  

 

Princess Haile

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