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Anna Freud: the Birth of Child Psychoanalysis

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Born on December 3, 1895, Anna Freud was the youngest daughter of Sigmund and Martha Freud’s six children. As a young girl, Anna was always fighting for Martha's attention. Constantly in the shadows of older sister Sophie’s beauty, Anna learned to loath Sophie and Martha and took to her father. Anna was continuously reading the works of Sigmund and became instantly interested in psychoanalysis. As Anna grew, she began to work with Sigmund exploring the idea of psychoanalysis and together they turned it into one of the most widely used methods of psychology. The mutual interest in psychoanalysis brought father and daughter together and formed a close bond between them. Sigmund stated in his book “The Interpretation of Dreams” that, “Annerl had a masculine appetite and aggression, and is beautiful with naughtiness” (Hernandaz, 2008).
When Anna was around seventeen years old, she took a two year vacation in which she stayed in Vienna with her grandmother. At the time, Anna was suffering from an illness that was then called, “it”, but can be safely labeled as depression (Hernandaz, 2008). While on vacation, Sigmund wrote to his daughter often and offered advice on how to overcome the “it” she was suffering from. Half way through the vacation however, Anna received a letter from Sigmund stating she was not invited to her sister Sophie’s wedding and subsequently, Anna was once again overtaken with depression.
After her two year stay in Vienna, Anna, "...worked as an elementary school teacher and began translating some of her father's works into German, increasing her interest in child psychology and psychoanalysis.” (Hernandaz, 2008). While she was teaching at the Cottage Lyceum, one of the students wrote, “This young lady had far more control over us than the older aunties,” (Jewish women's archive, 2005) This small and seemingly insignificant statement made by a child

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