Prologue

The impact of fathers on daughters' childhood histories and the influence of daughters on adult male development are topics that have been relatively undertheorized in psychoanalytic developmental and clinical literature. This is particularly surprising, given that the first cases that formed the foundation for psychoanalysis consisted primarily of middle-aged male analysts and adolescent female analysands. The contribution of Freud's daughter, Anna, has been of great significance both as one of his patients and in later helping to assure her father's legacy after his death. It also is noteworthy that, although Anna Freud's contributions both significantly extended the scope and altered the focus of psychoanalytic thought and practice—particularly in the realms of normal development, psychopathology, and clinical technique—to her dying day, Anna Freud staunchly maintained that she was merely “a good little soldier” (to use our contributor Adrienne Harris' phrase), rather than a generative thinker and shaper of this new discipline in her own right.

The essays in this issue all make significant and creative contributions towards extending our knowledge of this topic. Cohler and Galatzer-Levy's essay deepens our understanding of the impact of the relationship between Sigmund and Anna Freud upon the history of psychoanalysis and in the development of psychoanalytic thought. Drawing upon literature and myth, they also utilize this case example to enrich our understanding of the father-daughter relationship on female development. Young-Bruehl draws upon similar sources in order to study the meaning of the youngest daughter upon male psychology.

The other essays feature contemporary case material, with implications for both practice and theory. Balsam's essay offers us a rare glimpse into the intrapsychic world of fathers who served as the primary caretaker of infant daughters. Kieffer's paper continues her efforts to integrate self-psychology and relational psychoanalysis i