Anna Freud's 1952 Harvard University Lectures

These lectures (the first three published in this issue, the remaining six to appear in future issues) were given by Anna Freud at Harvard University in 1952. They were recorded on tape, and later copied from reels to cassettes. Copies of the cassettes were generously provided by Dr Martin Berezin of Boston, and the transcriptions have been edited by me as lightly as possible. Although Miss Freud did not read her lectures and possibly did not even speak from notes, the transformation of her spoken words into written text has been possible without significant alteration of the content of her talks. As always, Anna Freud's formulations were extremely clear, and reading them will recall many memories for those of us who knew her. It is evident, if we look at her talks from the perspective of her later work, how much she anticipated further developments in psychoanalysis. At the same time the lectures show the extent to which advances have been made in the viewpoint of developmental psychoanalysis during the last few decades. While there is no doubt that Anna Freud's lectures bear the stamp of their time, they serve the dual function of providing a most useful introduction to the psychoanalytic viewpoint, as well as giving us a most valuable historical document.