Entwicklungslinien anna freud biography

Anna Freud furthered the developmental aspects of Freud’s work, in particular the development of psychopathology. While Sigmund Freud worked mainly with adults and attempted to trace their psychopathologies by looking towards the past, Anna Freud worked mostly with children and was concerned with childhood development and healthy development looking forwards towards adulthood.

She argued that the journey to healthy adulthood follows a coherent “developmental line” (Freud, 1963, p.

Entwicklungslinien anna freud biography

130). In her model, conflicts were not just intrapsychic, but also arose at different stages of development where there are maturational steps involving the interaction between drive (id) maturation, ego functioning, superego demands and the influences of the environment.

As the child matures into adulthood, they would typically move forward along certain developmental lines, but they may also regress backwards along these lines in times of stress or challenge.