The Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna has conferred on Miss Anna Freud the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine. The conferring of the degree took place in a ceremony on May 26, 1972.
Formal letters of congratulation were sent to Miss Freud by Dr. Stanley Goodman, the Secretary, on behalf of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and by Dr. James T. McLaughlin, Secretary of the Board on Professional Standards, on behalf of that body. In concluding her response to Dr. Goodman's letter, Miss Freud said, “I suppose that the Medical Faculty in this way wants to make up for not always having been specially welcoming to my father,” while her letter of thanks to Dr. McLaughlin ended with “…it will be a very curious feeling to have this title without being given simultaneously the knowledge that usually goes with it.”
The conferring of this degree was unprecedented and represented the first time in the history of the University of Vienna that a layman had been so honored.