This book fills a gap in the literature available on the work of one of the major figures in the world of child psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Anna Freud's writings and work are not very widely known in Britain, and Edgcumbe suggests that her theories are regarded as outmoded. She sets out to correct what she sees as a misperception.

Anna Freud's view of child development derives from Freud's theory of drives, which she regarded as the ‘primary motivating forces’ in the formation of relationships. As drive theory was gradually superseded by object-relations theory, Anna Freud's views became less prevalent in Britain, and were associated mainly with psychoanalysis in the