ABSTRACT
This chapter brings together two analysts—Anna Freud and Heinz Hartmann— who were perhaps the two most influential Freudian theorists from 1940-1960 and beyond. These two works signalled a much fuller acceptance of the structural theory, particularly in the USA. Both of these volumes paid considerably greater attention to the conscious experiences of the patient. While the main focus of Freudian theory was the unconscious, both Anna Freud and Hartmann made the elementary but necessary point that one can only theorize about unconscious tendencies based on certain conscious experiences or actions. While Hartmann provides the theoretical and even the meta-theoretical rationale for balancing reason, the environment, and the drives, Anna Freud offers clinical rationale for always beginning with the surface of the mind. The chapter explores Anna Freud’s and Hartmann’s attempts to allow the structural theory to encapsulate and describes the normal and “pathological” functions of the human mind.
