Freud/Tiffany: Anna Freud, Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham and the ’best Possible School’

205 Pages·2018·6.46 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Ann Danto

Freud/Tiffany
With over 100 archival photographs and nine original, wide-ranging essays, Freud/
Tiffany brings to life the fascinating intersection of psychoanalysis and education.
Out of the cultural and political ferment of interwar Vienna emerged the H ietzing
School, founded in the 1920s by Anna Freud, the youngest daughter of Sigmund
Freud, and Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham, the youngest daughter of the great
American artist Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Anna Freud’s story unfolds over three decades from her adolescence through the
1940s, as she and Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham leverage their hands-on research
with children into educational innovations at the Hietzing School and beyond. The
Viennese psychoanalysts of the 1920s demonstrated a unique sensitivity to mar-
ginalised populations and to the impact of war, its threats and its aftermath, es-
pecially on the lives of children. The book features never-before-seen historical
photographs, including four of Sigmund Freud, as well as unpublished archival ma-
terial and original paintings. Drawings, manuscripts and memoirs make vivid the
founders’ vision of the Hietzing School’s origins, its day-to-day experience and its
enduring significance for our understanding of education and the developing mind.
Marking the first publication of many of the historic materials originally show-
cased in 2017 at a major Freud Museum London exhibition, the international scholar-
ship behind Freud/Tiffany demonstrates that the Hietzing School remains the seedbed
for a surprising range of modern theory and practice in child and adolescent mental
health, from Erik Erikson’s lifespan model of ‘identity’ to the legal concept of ‘the
best interests of the child.’ The Freud and Tiffany legacies are now brought together
as never before in this lively book, and the Hietzing School is restored to its rightful
place in the history of so many ideas with which we are still working today. The book
is essential for any reader interested in the cultural legacy of interwar Vienna.
Elizabeth Ann Danto is emeritus professor at Hunter College – City University of
New York, and an independent curator who writes and lectures internationally on
the history of psychoanalysis as a system of thought and a marker of urban culture.
She is the author of Historical Research (Oxford University Press, 2008) and her
book Freud’s Free Clinics – Psychoanalysis and Social Justice, 1918–1938 (Columbia
University Press, 2005) received the Gradiva Book Award and the Goethe Prize.
Alexandra Steiner-Strauss is a historian of Viennese art and culture; former lecturer
at the Kunsthistorisches Museum and curator, Theater Museum Vienna; author
of Trägt die Sprache schon Gesang in sich. Richard Strauss und die Oper (2014); and
co-author of Gustav Klimt und Wien (2012) and Anna Freud in Wien (2016).
The History of Psychoanalysis Series
Professor Brett Kahr and Professor Peter L. Rudnytsky (Series editors)
Other titles in the series:
Freud/Tiffany
Anna Freud, Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham and the ‘Best Possible
School’
Elizabeth Ann Danto, editor
Alexandra Steiner-Strauss, research editor
Freud at Work
On the History of Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice, with an
Analysis of Freud’s Patient Record Books
Ulrike May
What is this Professor Freud Like? A Diary of an
Analysis with Historical Comments
Edited by Anna Koellreuter
Corresponding Lives
Mabel Dodge Luhan, A. A. Brill, and the Psychoanalytic
Adventure in America
Patricia R. Everett
A Forgotten Freudian
The Passion of Karl Stern
Daniel Burston
The Skin-Ego
A New Translation by Naomi Segal
Didier Anzieu
For further information about this series please visit
https://www.routledge.com/The-History-of-Psychoanalysis-Series/
book-series/KARNHIPSY
Freud/Tiffany
Anna Freud, Dorothy Tiffany
Burlingham and the ‘Best Possible
School’ 1920s Vienna and beyond
An illustrated book of
memoir and history
Edited by Elizabeth Ann Danto
with Research Editor Alexandra
Steiner-Strauss
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2019 editorial matter, Introduction and Chapter 3, Elizabeth
Ann Danto; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Elizabeth Ann Danto to be identified as the
author of the editorial material, and of individual chapters, has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
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The status of copyright in these photographs is governed by
the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
Reproduction, duplication and transmission of any of these
images is prohibited under any circumstances and in any form,
including all print or electronic media.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Danto, Elizabeth Ann, editor. | Steiner-Strauss, Alexandra, editor.
Title: Freud/Tiffany: Anna Freud, Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham and
the “best possible school” / edited by Elizabeth Ann Danto
with research editor Alexandra Steiner-Strauss.
Description: New York: Routledge, 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018023504 (print) | LCCN 2018047892 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780429439889 (Master eBook) | ISBN 9781138342026 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781138342088 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780429439889 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Hietzing School—History. | Freud, Anna, 1895–1982. |
Burlingham, Dorothy T. | Private schools—Austria—Vienna—History—
20th century. | Vienna (Austria)—Social conditions—20th century. |
Psychoanalysis—Austria—Vienna—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC LC53.A9 (ebook) | LCC LC53.A9 F74 2018 (print) |
DDC 371.0209436/13—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018023504
ISBN: 978-1-138-34202-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-34208-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-43988-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
The Freud/Tiffany authors ix
Foreword xi
CAROL SEIGEL
Series Editor’s Foreword xiii
BRETT KAHR
Introduction: ERBAUT VON DER GEMEINDE WIEN…/
Built by the Community of Vienna 1
ELIzABETH ANN DANTO
1 Bob’s Diary, December 1931 15
MICHAEL JOHN BURLINGHAM
2 A school for trick cyclists? 33
MICHAEL MOLNAR
3 The Hietzing years 49
ELIzABETH ANN DANTO
4 August Aichhorn and his Hietzing friends 70
THOMAS AICHHORN
5 Anna Freud and the science of unexpected findings 91
INGE-MARTINE PRETORIUS
6 The Hietzing School as the birthplace of a psychoanalytic
theory of adolescence 113
FLORIAN HOUSSIER
vi Contents
7 The child in mind and body – the writing of Anna Freud and
Dorothy Burlingham in The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 126
NELLIE L. THOMPSON AND HéLèNE KEABLE
8 Young Dorothy Burlingham 148
PAUL WERNER
9 Step by step: Vienna between the Wars: an Overview 165
ALExANDRA STEINER-STRAUSS
Index 185
Acknowledgments
For their financial and intellectual support, without which this collection
would not have been possible, we gratefully acknowledge the generous part-
nership of the following individuals and organisations:
The Anna Freud Foundation; the zukunftsfonds der Republik
Österreich; the Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies; Carol
Seigel (director), Karolina Urbaniak, Sophie Leighton, Bryony Davies, and
the curators, specialists and staff at the Freud Museum London; Monika
Pessler (director), Simone Faxa, Daniela Finzi and the staff at the Sigmund
Freud Museum Vienna; the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and
Families (London); the archivists and staff of the Manuscript Reading
Room and of the Prints and Photographs Division at the US Library of
Congress, Washington DC; the archives of the British Institute of Psychoa-
nalysis; Ralph Engelman and Thomas Engelman; the Collection of Michael
J. Burlingham (New York); the Collection of Daniel Benveniste (Bellevue,
WA); the Estate of August Aichhorn (Vienna); Jackie Jones and the Ernest
Jones Rehabilitation Fund collection; Michael Simonson, Leo Baeck Insti-
tute (New York); the Museum of the City of New York; Anna Meadmore,
Royal Ballet School (London); Olga Umansky, Hanns Sachs Library and
Archives, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute; Kathleen Schmeling
and Elizabeth Clemens, Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and
Urban Affairs, Wayne State University; Miriam Cady and the Philadelphia
Museum of Art; Nick Midgley, Anna Freud National Centre for Children
and Families (London); Victor Ross (London); and Marisa Shaari, Oskar
Diethelm Library, DeWitt Wallace Institute for the History of Psychiatry,
Weill Cornell Medical College (New York).
For their kind permission to reproduce images and to quote previously
published or unpublished materials in their collections, we thank:
The Freud Museum London; the Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna; the
Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families; the archives of
the British Institute of Psychoanalysis; Ralph Engelman and Thomas
Engelman; Michael J. Burlingham; Daniel Benveniste; Thomas Aichhorn;
Jackie Jones; Ruth Bernstein Hoch; the Royal Ballet School, London; the
viii Acknowledgments
Hanns Sachs Library and Archives and the Boston Psychoanalytic Society
and Institute; the Museum of the City of New York; the Leo Baeck Insti-
tute; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York; the Siegfried Altmann Papers, Leo Baeck Institute, New York;
the Oskar Diethelm Library, DeWitt Wallace Institute for the History of
Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College; the Association for Child Psy-
choanalysis and Taylor & Francis Ltd on behalf of the Association for Child
Psychoanalysis.
All works of art are reproduced with the kind permission of the own-
ers. Every attempt has been made to trace the photographers, artists and
the copyright holders of works reproduced, and we regret any unwitting
infringement.
The Freud/Tiffany authors
Thomas Aichhorn (Vienna) is a psychoanalyst; author and lecturer special-
izing in the “general seduction theory” of Jean Laplanche, the history
of psychoanalysis, the psychoanalysis of adolescence and the life and
work of August Aichhorn; editor of The letters of Anna Freud – August
Aichhorn, 1921–1949 (Brandes & Apsel 2012). 
Michael John Burlingham (New York) is a writer, editor, and photogra-
pher based in New York City. He is the copy chief of Barron’s financial
newsweekly and the author of The Last Tiffany: A Biography of Dorothy
Tiffany Burlingham (Atheneum, 1989).
Elizabeth Ann Danto (New York and Vienna) is professor emeritus of social
welfare, Hunter College/City University of New York; writer in history of
psychoanalysis, urban public welfare and labor studies; author of Histori-
cal Research (Oxford University Press 2009); and recipient of the Gradiva
Award (USA) and the Goethe Prize (Canada) for Freud’s Free Clinics –
Psychoanalysis & Social Justice, 1918–1938 (Columbia University Press
2005).
Florian Houssier (Paris) is a psychoanalyst; professor of clinical psychology
and psychopathology at the Sorbonne, Paris 13; president of the Collège
International de L’adolescence (CILA); author of Anna Freud et son école,
créativité et controversies (Campagne Première 2010) and Freud Adoles-
cent (Campagne Première 2018); co-author of Éduquer l’adolescent? Pour
une pédagogie psychanalytique (éditions Champ social, 2007).
Hélène Keable (New York) is an adult, adolescent and child psychoanalyst;
faculty – Training and Supervising Analyst in New York Psychoanalytic
Society and Institute; senior psychiatrist at Columbia University Irving
Medical Center Student Health Service Mental Health and Columbia
University Counselling and Psychological Services; and co-author of
Ethical Practice in Child and Adolescent Analysis and Psychotherapy: Pro-
tecting Safety in a Therapeutic Environment (Jason Aronson, 2011).