ABSTRACT
Her work is not commonly recognised in Britain, and is more widely accepted among analysts in the USA as well as Europe. Yet Anna Freud’s work is as relevant today as it ever was, since it offers avenues of approach to understanding and managing the children whose difficult behaviour can create havoc in schools, who become violent, murderous, delinquent or promiscuous, vandalise schools and the areas where they live, or turn to substance abuse. It also offers understanding and ways of treating those who create trouble not for others but for themselves, through crippling anxieties, failure in their schoolwork, inability to cope with social relationships and situations, or incapacity for work. Both groups of children may suffer difficulties in their sexual partnerships and in parenting in later life, because of their anxieties, inadequacies or immaturities, and her work offers ways of helping such individuals as parents, too.
