Anna Freud

Anna Freud (1895-1982), Austrian-British psychoanalyst and daughter of Sigmund Freud, noted especially for her work in the psychoanalysis of children. Born in Vienna, she became a children's teacher and also worked closely with her father in the development of psychoanalytic theory. She and her father escaped to London from the Nazis in 1938. Anna Freud's work stressed the function of the ego in personality development and emphasized the use of defense mechanisms such as repression. She founded the Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic in London in 1947 and served as its director after 1952. The author of numerous scientific books and papers, she also helped found the annual periodical Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, in 1945.