ABSTRACT
Niceness may disarm, but does not eliminate the factor of authority. In even the most progressive of educations the child is subject to adult guidance, and guidance may blend into compulsion. Polymorphous curiosity is a driving force in photography. At the school Bob’s flirtations with various girls were notorious, while in his psychoanalysis Anna Freud was dealing with what she interpreted as his “tendency to homosexuality”. A portrait emerges from a contest with self-consciousness, especially when done by a professional photographer such as Trude Fleischmann. It was during the first years of the 1930s that Dorothy and Anna really became what would now be termed “an item.” Together they acquired the country cottage at Hochrotherd and invested their spare time renovating it and cultivating its garden. To some extent Anna Freud too has suffered from historiographical condescension. She too is often presented as a strict, over-serious and overshadowed character.
