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December 9, 1980. ANNA FREUD ON VIDEOTAPE: CHILD ANALYSIS AS THE STUDY OF MENTAL GROWTH (NORMAL AND ABNORMAL).
In a videotaped lecture, Anna Freud presented an unpublished paper which, she said, was of necessity very condensed and without clinical examples. The paper was divided into three sections. The first comprised an international survey of child analytic work, subdivided as follows:
1The starting point of child analysis was the Little Hans case history, which gave rise to various attempts at treatment and prevention. Miss Freud noted that some innovative and interesting experiments have been lost, along with their innovators.
2There have been numerous efforts to develop techniques suitable for child analysis. Children, because of id pressures, lack of ego development, poorly developed working alliances, and unusual transferences, are not usually suited for classical free association.
3There has been a tendency to follow the mainstream of adult psychoanalysis, as in the "widening scope," with application to conditions such as borderline, autism, and infantile psychosis.
4Another tendency has involved considering whether child analysis and direct observation of children by child analysts could confirm, refute, or amend the findings of adult analysis.
5There has been the hope, about which Miss Freud has not been optimistic, that child analysis would break new ground in adult analysis.
6There has been a trend to study earlier and earlier life stages to find the chronological and developmental period most important for the origin of pathology. This is a tendency which Miss Freud feels has led to unfortunate specialization of interest and divergencies of theory.