+

Anna
Freud.

Helena Yeung

IB Psychology Y1
 http://www.freud.org.uk/anna3.j
pg

“…She became at very least her

father's symbolic successor.”

- Dr. C. George Boeree

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/el-profesor-freud.jpg
 +

Anna Freud and the Ego

Her father focused more on the unconscious id, but Anna put more
emphasis on the Ego.
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/thereisnocat/447795262/in/photostream/

-Rose Edgcumbe
+
+
Signal Anxiety and Types of Anxiety
"not directly a conflicted instinctual tension but a
signal occurring in the ego of an anticipated
instinctual tension".

-Anna Freud
+
Defense mechanisms-
1. Freud mentioned them, but Anna systematically organized them.

• Repression
Introduced by Anna Freud-
• Displacement
When you identify with the
• Denial person that is causing you
anxiety
• Projection

• Reaction Formation

• Intellectualization

• Rationalization
Doing good deeds so you
• Sublimation
feel good about yourself.
• Identification with the Aggressor

• Altruism
+
Level One Defense Mechanisms
+
+
Level Three Defense Mechanisms
+
+
Developmental Lines
1. Biological unity between mother and child
2. A dependence on an object relation
3. The child finds a constant object to replace
mother
4. The child is torn between good and bad
feelings to a person
5. The phallic-oedipal stage
6. Latency period
7. The preadolescent prelude to the adolescent
revolt
8. Adolescence
+
All structures of personality (The Id, Ego, Superego)
are present by the end of the phallic stage.

A typical person establishes balance by the age of 5,

so by the latency stage, the person’s ego can defend
from anxiety.
+
Until…
Adolescence
WHY?
“Anna Freud claimed that all people will have their
balance destroyed in adolescence.”
- Richard M. Lerner
+
Alteration in Drives
• Because of puberty, you grow adult genital drives,
and therefore the balance is disrupted.
• Called developmental disturbance because it in
universal and inevitable.

“The adolescent is necessarily involved ‘in

dangers which did not exist before and with
what he is not accustomed to deal. Since at this
stage, he lives and functions still as a member of
his family unit, he runs the risk of allowing the
new genital urges to connect his old love
objects, that is, his parents, brothers, sisters’”
- Richard M. Lerner.
Incest is unacceptable in most cultures, therefore,
a defense against this must be formed, causing a
personality change.
+
Alteration in Ego
Organization- Intellectualization = talking
back to your parents.
Using intellectual reasons
•Thenewfound drive causes the to justify one’s behavior
person much disturbance

•Leads to unpredictable behavior

because the person tries all formerly
useful defenses against the new
urges

•Putsstrain on the person because

these formerly useful defenses are
not as effective

•Developsdefense mechanism-
INTELLETUALIZATION
+
Alterations in Object Relation

 The chance of accidentally

acting on the newfound genital
drives is so large, that…

“Nothing helps here

except a complete
discarding of the people
who were important
love objects of the child,
that is, the parents.”
- Anna Freud
+
And therefore causes….alteration in
ideals and social relations
• Once having broken ties with
parents, the adolescent has also
changed all former ideals and views.

• Therefore- the adolescent is left

without ideals or social ties.

• This causes the adolescent to find

substitutes- friends.

• Can be justified, and the newfound

genital drive (which is the cause for
all the alterations) can possibly be
dealt with in a way arguably less
severe than incest.
+
Research Methods

 She based her research on her

dad’s work.

 She worked as a teacher,

therefore, has first hand
observational experience with
children

 Natural Experiments

 Long term study of patients-

from childhood to
adolescence.

 She encouraged pooling of

information from all analysts
+
Limitations of her work-
• Like her father, her work cannot be falsified.

Her view on adolescents is very

stereotypical!
Not all of them are like that.

“Her work is an extensive theory and doctors regard

clinical work over extensive theory therefore Anna
Freud’s work isn’t that popular. Doctors prefer a
simpler approach, but as we look into her theory, it’s
clear that a too simple approach is inadequate.”
-Edgcumbe
 Works Cited

Anna Freud Biographical Essay. (1998). Anna Freud. In Encyclopedia of World biography
Supplement, Vol. 18. Gale Research [Web]. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. Retrieved November
21 1008, from http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/history

Anna Freud. In Wikipedia [Web]. Media Wiki. Retrieved November 20 2008, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Freud

Boeree, C. G. (1998). Anna Freud 1895-1982. Retrieved November 23, 2008, from Personality
Theories Web site: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/annafreud.html

Defense Mechanism. In Wikipedia [Web]. Retrieved November 20 2008, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_defenses

Edgcumbe, R. (2000). Anna Freud: A View of Development, Disturbance and Therapeutic

Techniques. Routledge.

Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and Theories of Human Developement. Lawrence Erlbaum

Associates.

Life and Work of Anna Freud. Retrieved November 19, 2008, from Freud Museum London
Web site: http://www.freud.org.uk/fmanna.htm

Whetham, P (2006). Psychology. Melton, Australia: IBID.