ABSTRACT
Hermine Hug-Hellmuth was an Austrian psychoanalyst, and one of the earliest analysts to specialise in working with children. In 1919, she published A Young Girl’s Diary in German; it was remarkably popular, translated into English and French, and considered a key text in the history of child psychoanalysis. The diary provides an account of the thoughts, feelings and experiences of a young adolescent in the form of a regular journal, but the child that is found there aligns remarkably closely with Freudian ideas of childhood, not least evidencing Oedipal desires, sibling rivalries, and anxieties about sexual maturity. Hug-Hellmuth was accused of fraud, and the book was withdrawn from sale in Germany. She denied writing the journal, although admitted editing it.
