Contributions to Child Analysis

THERE HAVE BEEN TWO MAJOR PHASES IN THE EVOLUTION OF TECHnique in child analysis, the first beginning in about 1920, the second after the war, in about 1945. The work of Berta Bornstein spanned both phases. To give a general picture of her contributions, I must first sketch in a little of the history of child analysis; I should like to say at the outset that my references to Berta Bornstein's development of technical methods during the same years when Anna Freud was doing so, and later on as well, have no concern with priority. A simultaneity of discovery is not unusual in the history of science.

Play as a therapeutic medium for the analysis of children was introduced in 1920 by Hermine Hug-Hellmuth, and perhaps because play traditionally has promoted learning, Hug-Hellmuth regarded child analysis to be an educational treatment, which needed to be carried out in the child's home. The theoretical status of child analysis was clarified in 1926 by Anna Freud's first series of lectures, in which she described the main technical tasks: the development of the child's insight into his illness, the uses of play, the limitations of transference, and the work with parents. These themes were taken up by others for almost 20 years thereafter, in Europe and in this country.1 Publications of the time dealt with