Anna Frued

On December 3, 1895 Anna Freud was born. She was the youngest of Martha and Sigmund Freud’s six children. Anna was very different from her mother and older sisters. The other women of the Freud family were concerned with looking attractive and conforming to stereotypical female roles. Anna on the other hand thought of herself as more masculine. She was often compared to her beautiful sister Sophie, whom she never got along with. The family often referred to the two of them as “beauty and the brains” (Dyer, 1983). Anna did not have a very strong relationship with her mother, which could be part of the reason behind her exceptionally strong bond with her father, Sigmund Freud. She is known as “her father’s daughter” (1983).
Sigmund Freud is famous for his theories about the unconscious mind and is known as the founder of psychology. Anna Freud followed in her father’s footsteps and took a great interest in psychoanalysis. She later became the founder of child psychoanalysis. To hold this title Anna Freud contributed an extensive amount of work into the field throughout the many roles she had in her life time. Anna was a teacher, theorist, healer, leader, idealist and writer (Coles, 1992).
Anna attended a private elementary school at age six and was first introduced to her father’s work in psychoanalysis at the age of fourteen (Young-Bruehl, 1994). Sigmund Freud soon allowed Anna to listen in on his lectures from the back of the room. Later she became a school teacher, and not surprisingly took a keen interest in analyzing her third, fourth and fifth year students. This is where Anna became very interested in her father’s work (Dyer, 1983).   Anna said that her practical contact with the students was what she needed to become an analyst, which she was able to achieve through five years of teaching children (Coles, 1992).
When Sigmund Freud became ill with cancer, Anna began seeing some of her father’s patients. One particular person that impacted Anna’s career... [continues]

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