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Psychology And Development Of Anna Freud

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Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud, was one of six siblings actually interested in psychoanalysis. Anna began by studying language and eventually became a teacher. It wasn’t until she attended a meeting with the Vienna Psychoanalytic society that she began to do analytic training. Her background in teaching lead her to the study of child psychology. Although her father focused mainly on adults and how adults influenced children, Anna wanted to use this kind of psychoanalysis to focus on children. After he passed away she wanted to continue to study psychoanalysis, which brought her to write multiple papers and books about her theories (Fine, 1985). Anna Freud was an important part of developing psychoanalysis, and her work can still be seen today. The beginning of Anna’s studies were irregular and disorganized. She would often visit study children at their homes, using toys and talking to their parents. Although her father analyzed children in terms of their sexual fantasies and how those were connected to their parents, Anna had a different way. She began to organize her own way of child therapy, which was similar to therapy of adults but with compensation for immaturity. However, Anna’s theory was questioned in a big disagreement with Melanie Klein. Klein believed that children could be analyzed through transference, but Freud believed that children are too young to develop these kind of unconscious thoughts. Freud’s beliefs stemmed from the idea that as a child,

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