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WITH ANNA FREUD'S DEATH, WE HAVE LOST AN INSPIRING model, a unique person who deeply influenced our profession as well as allied fields. Directly or indirectly, she touched the lives of children all over the world. Combining an unusual blend of theoretical and practical knowledge, she pioneered in developing clinical and research approaches to the psychoanalytic understanding of children and made original contributions to the scientific foundation of psychoanalysis. Her lasting contributions to analysis far exceed what we cover here—her view of psychoanalytic developmental psychology, its building blocks and sources, and some areas of its applications.
"… with the introduction of the analysis of children," Anna Freud (1965a) said, "Psychoanalysis moved a step nearer to providing what it had set out to provide: a service of child experts" (p. 9).
In developing child analysis, she started with an exquisite knowledge of the child's mind. She realized from the beginning that
… owing to their immaturity, children lack many of the qualities and attitudes which, in adults, are held to be indispensable