First Floor
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The Anna Freud Room depicts aspects of her work and character; the
room contains some furniture from her study (including her analytic couch)
and a loom from her bedroom. Anna Freud was a keen weaver and a knitting
enthusiast, this latter activity being one which she practiced during analyses
of patients. She was born in 1895, the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund
and Martha Freud. In 1914 she began training as a primary school teacher
but in 1918 she also began training as a lay psychoanalyst receiving her
own analysis from her father. |
However, Anna Freud's short teaching career provided a basis for her pioneering
work in the field of child psychology: her Introduction to the Technique
of Child Analysis was published in 1927 and her influential The
Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence appeared in 1936. From 1923 onwards
she also became her father's secretary and ambassador.
An exhibition in the room illustrates some aspects of Anna Freud's
life and work both in Vienna and in London, where she was assisted by Dorothy
Burlingham, an analyst who lived at 20 Maresfield Gardens until her death
in 1979.
Press for more detailed information on Anna Freud.
| The Landing features two portraits of Sigmund
Freud, one by Ferdinand Schmutzer, the other by Salvador Dali. Schmutzer's
drawing was made in 1926. Freud praised the portrait, writing in a letter
of thanks to Schmutzer that "it gives me great pleasure and I should really
thank you for the trouble you have taken in reproducing my ugly face, and
I repeat my assurance that only now do I feel myself preserved for posterity." |
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The Salvador Dali drawing was made in 1938. Stefan Zweig
introduced the surrealist artist to Freud on 19 July when Freud was living
in 39 Elsworthy Road. During the encounter Dali executed a sketch surreptitiously
and later made the pen and ink drawing. Neither the sketch nor the drawing
were shown to Freud because Zweig felt they conveyed Freud's imminent death. |
Floor Plan
Ground Floor |
