Child Psychoanalysis: Freud’s Contributions

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Piaget cannot match Anna Freud’s role in advancing knowledge on childhood and development. The scholar was crucial in pioneering methods and theory of child psychoanalysis while showing how the application of psychoanalytic theory could make a critical difference to children in various settings. These settings include war, poverty, family breakdown, and physical handicap. Unlike Piaget, Freud should receive much recognition for her contributions to child development.

Freud pioneered child psychoanalysis; this method significantly contributed to excellent knowledge about children by focusing on their intellectual and emotional lives. Her research was based on the readily available evidence through her encounter with children from nurseries and daycare centers that she established in different regions. The contribution of Freud cannot be compared to other scholars as her work was original and diverse. For instance, her contribution to psychoanalysis is crucial as it was the first school of psychology to emphasize the unconscious, the desires, and the impulses that can influence our actions and behavior. Most methods and ideas pioneered during psychoanalysis are still employed in therapy and research. Another reason why Freud needs to be recognized is her essential contribution to our understanding of ego or consciousness functions in averting painful ideas, feelings, and impulses.

Freud was innovative in her thinking and actively collaborated with stakeholders in child care, education, law, and health (Solnit, 1997). She was able to study children and help those caught up in natural and artificial catastrophes through the application of psychoanalytic theory. Piaget’s work was linked with criticism of his research methodology, where much of his observations were based on the analysis of his own three children (Cherry, 2019). The other findings were made from a small research sample of children from well-educated professionals. This aspect rendered the selection unrepresentative hence difficult to generalize his findings.

The fact that Freud had access to different settings where she could practice her theory makes her developmental research highly recognizable. Additionally, the scientist committed to revising her work and explaining its reason. Her role in child analysis through the Normality and Pathology in Childhood places her work at the top. In his paper “The Scientific Leadership of Anna Freud,” Lustman writes that it was unimaginable for Freud to carry out scientifically valid research in psychoanalysis without laboratory conditions, quantification of results, and control groups, among other limitations (Solnit, 1997). Compared to Piaget, the contribution of Freud to childhood and development deserves more recognition.