Anna Freud—Child Analyst

Anna Freud's contribution to child psychoanalysis is enormous. On this topic alone her publications span over fifty years and fill several volumes of her collected works. Her originality and clarity of thought are immediately obvious from these written works which are, in my view, essential equipment in the repertoire of any analyst. She also provided unrivalled opportunities for training and research in child psychoanalysis and child development in the Hampstead Course and Clinic which she and Kate Friedlander founded in 1952. Her influence has stimulated a great deal of study and research not only by workers in psychoanalysis but in several other disciplines as well.

In this short paper I can give only my personal selection of some important aspects of her work, which is better known in America and some other European countries than in Great Britain or even, surprisingly, in this Society. Indeed it seems to have been almost as an afterthought that her contribution to child analysis was added when the rest of tonight's programme had already been planned even though one stream of the Institute's training in Child Analysis is now delegated to Hampstead. The contrast between Anna Freud's international reputation, which brought her many academic and political honours, and her partial isolation in this country might, perhaps, be seen as the aftermath of the disagreements between the Kleinian group and the Viennese group of analysts whose arrival in London in 1938 brought to a head the theoretical and personal disputes previously conducted at a safe distance.

I have no personal knowledge of those times. I first met Anna Freud in 1959 when I became a student at the Hampstead Clinic. But I think we probably also have to take into account the personality of this formidable woman. Her wish for personal privacy (she refused to write an autobiography, and wanted no personal memorial at this Society's meeting) could make her seem distant and aloof; the concise clarity of