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This book is the story of Peter Heller, a patient of Anna Freud’s, and an examination of Anna Freud’s experiment with applying psychoanalytic principles to the treatment and education of children in the late 1920s.1 It is a sprawling history of this time, alongside the focus on Peter Heller, and Anna Freud’s treatment of him.2 Peter’s analysis started when he was nine, and he also attended the Heizing school, founded by Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham. The children and teachers in this school played an important role in Peter’s development. In addition, in the background of Peter Heller’s adolescence, there was the rise of the Nazis in Germany, which eventually spread to Austria and affected everyone. The author beautifully captures this era.
Vivian Heller is in a special place to write about Peter Heller as she is his daughter, and an author of well-received books of history (Heller 1996, 2004). Further, Peter Heller was an
All citations to page numbers without reference to the author’s name are to be understood as from the book under review.
As Midgley (2012) notes, the first phase of Peter’s analysis lasted 15 months, and ended in 1930. After 5 months Peter returned to treatment with Anna Freud when his mother had a mental breakdown.
inveterate diarist, and later in his life received Anna Freud’s notes on his treatment, along with drawings he did for her.3 The book is filled with many details, too many to include in this review, so I will only relate what struck me as central.
The book begins with a nightmare Peter told Anna Freud, one of many, that led his Father (Hans) to bring Peter to Anna Freud for analysis.4 “Anna Freud told my father that she knew something about dreams, and by putting their heads together they could probably make his dreams go away” (4). I found this simple empathic statement remarkable, in that it must have been very reassuring to this frightened boy, while also establishing the analytic task as a joint venture said in words that a ni