50 Anna Freud Quotes

Lydia Samson
Sep 29, 2023 By Lydia Samson
Originally Published on Oct 13, 2022
info_i
Discover some amazing Anna Freud quotes in this article!

The youngest child of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud devoted her efforts to psychoanalysis and can also be considered one of the founders of child psychology.

Anna Freud always focused on emotional well-being and explored healthier ways that would increase self-esteem and self-confidence. She made all efforts to know humans and has had a great influence in establishing child psychology.

Focusing on child psychology, she stressed that every kid must be respected and their opinions should be as important as an adult's. For this, she asserted that time and effort should be invested in understanding children, as they do not seek voluntarily.

Anna Freud's continued efforts led her to help several children, where she assisted them in recognizing their own needs so that their specific problems could be addressed without any hesitance.

Besides this, Anna Freud also gave a deep insight into how ego works. Ego makes us who we are as it gives us an identity and forms the base of all our likes and dislikes. So, it is necessary that we make an effort to know ourselves better.

Through some Anna Freud quotes, we will take a closer look at how she wanted to help know people and also how we can know ourselves better. Let us go through some amazing Anna Freud quotes!

Anna Freud Quotes On Deep Reflection

Speaking of ego, we can make an effort to reflect on our thoughts as well as introspect them. Maybe this approach will help us in developing greater self-esteem that helps us lead a healthy life. Let's go through some Anna Freud quotes that can help us in this journey!

“Who promised you that only for joy were you brought to this earth?” - Anna Freud.

“I do not see the misery that is there, but the beauty that remains. One way of saying it's better to see the glass half full than half empty.” - Anna Freud.

“I was lucky to be thrown abruptly into reality.” - Anna Freud.

“If instinctual demands are excessively urgent during development, the ego will redouble its defensive activities. This can stiffen the resistance of the ego to the instinctual impulses, leading to symptoms and inhibitions that remain throughout life.” - Anna Freud.

“What I have always wanted for me is much more primitive. It's probably just the affection of the people I'm in contact with, and their good opinion of me.” - Anna Freud.

“We are aware only of the empty space in the forest, which only yesterday was filled with trees.” - Anna Freud.

“We live trapped, between the past that is scrambled and examined and a future that awaits our work.” - Anna Freud.

“If something does not satisfy you, do not be surprised. We call that life.” - Anna Freud.

“Even in the normal state of being in love, a person's intellectual capabilities are reduced and his reason becomes less reliable than usual. The more passionately his desire to satisfy his instinctive impulses, the less inclined he is, as a rule, to use the intellect for their rational investigation and suppression.” - Anna Freud.

“In our dreams, we can have our eggs cooked exactly how we want them, but we can't eat them.” - Anna Freud.

“It seems to me that the latent content of these dreams has much in common with the mental processes ascribed to the person who loses a material possession.

Here too a part is played by the interference of two opposite tendencies with each other, the simultaneous wishes to retain and to discard being replaced in this instance by the simultaneous urges to remain loyal to the dead and to turn toward new ties with the living.” - Anna Freud, 'About Losing And Being Lost'.

“Many things become a problem because of how we are.” - Anna Freud.

“If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore. Are there not very important things which can only reveal themselves, under certain conditions and at certain times, by quite feeble indications?” - Anna Freud.

“The past exerts a great influence on us and largely conditions our life if we do not remedy it.” - Anna Freud.

“I think that a psychoanalyst should have... interests... beyond the limits of the medical field... in facts that belong to sociology, religion, literature, [and] history,... [otherwise] his outlook on... his patient will remain too narrow.” - Anna Freud.

“The very existence of neurotic symptoms indicates that the ego has failed.” - Anna Freud, 'Ego And The Mechanisms Of Defense'.

“My different personalities leave me alone right now.” - Anna Freud.

“Sometimes the most beautiful thing is precisely the one that comes unexpectedly and not deserved, therefore, something truly given as a present.” - Anna Freud.

Anna Freud Quotes On Confidence And Humor

These Anna Freud quotes reek of confidence and resolute!

(Anna Freud's books have always helped people to ponder)

“Laziness may seem attractive, but work gives satisfaction.” - Anna Freud.

“Everything becomes so problematic by basic failures: by a discontent with myself.” - Anna Freud.

“How can one know everything about people?” - Anna Freud.

“My different personalities leave me in peace now.” - Anna Freud.

“Not loving us carries with it many problems.” - Anna Freud.

“I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time.” - Anna Freud.

“A person can feel lonely, even when many people love her.” - Anna Freud.

“Things are not as we would like them to be. There is only one way to deal with it, namely to try and be all right oneself.” - Anna Freud.

“I was looking outside of myself to find strength and confidence but these come from within. They have always been there.” - Anna Freud.

“Things are not what we would like them to be. There is only one way to deal with it: try to be good with yourself.” - Anna Freud.

“Everyone says in a surprised way that I have grown up ... they are so stupid and do not realize that I'm just standing.” - Anna Freud.

“Dreams are not something real and therefore we cannot live on them.” - Anna Freud.

Anna Freud Quotes On Family And Education

Given she is the daughter of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud had a great understanding of family. Along with this, she also knew how education was important in shaping people. So, through relevant Anna Freud quotes we can know her viewpoints better!

“Papa continually emphasizes how much remains unexplained. With the other psychoanalytic writers, everything is always so known and fixed.” - Anna Freud.

“Children usually do not blame themselves for being lost. They are adults.” - Anna Freud.

“With due respect for the necessary strictest handling and interpretation of the transference, I feel still that we should leave room somewhere for the realization that analyst and patient are also two real people, of equal adult status, in a real personal relationship to each other.” - Anna Freud.

“Sigmund Freud continually emphasized how much is left unexplained. With the other psychoanalytic writers, everything is always fixed and known.” - Anna Freud.

“Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.” - Anna Freud.

“If you want to be a real psychoanalyst you have to have a great love of the truth, scientific truth as well as personal truth, and you have to place this appreciation of truth higher than any discomfort at meeting unpleasant facts, whether they belong to the world outside or to your own inner person.” - Anna Freud.

“I am glad that I do not have any children.” - Anna Freud.

“The experience has made me learn a lot about this life. Experience is one of the best ways to learn. It is what is known as experiential learning.” - Anna Freud.

“When parents' feelings are ineffective or too ambivalent or when mother's emotions are temporarily compromised elsewhere, children feel lost.” - Anna Freud.

“There are few situations in life which are more difficult to cope with than an adolescent son or daughter during the attempt to liberate themselves.” - Anna Freud.

“A collective failure does not have the same dimensions as an individual failure.” - Anna Freud.

“You ought to be a great reader and become acquainted with the literature of many countries and cultures. In the great literary figures you will find people who know at least as much of human nature as the psychiatrists and psychologists try to do.” - Anna Freud.

Anna Freud Quotes On Society

Humans make society. However, one question prevails. Do we make it or break it? The same was asked by Anna Freud and her quotes reflect that. Also, her quotes make an approach to the well-being of society. Let's read!

“Why do we go around acting as though everything was friendship and reliability when basically everything everywhere is full of sudden hate and ugliness.” - Anna Freud.

“There are lies that have been worked so hard that they look like the truth.” - Anna Freud.

“We live trapped, between the past stirred and examined and a future that awaits our work.” - Anna Freud.

“It is inherent in human nature to consider a thing untrue if one does not like it.” - Anna Freud.

“How wonderful it is that no one needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anna Freud.

“A first visit to a madhouse is always a shock.” - Anna Freud.

“Intolerance towards other people is ahead of strictness towards oneself. The self learns what is reprehensible, but defends itself against unpleasant self-criticism with the help of this defense mechanism. Strong indignation at other people's wrong deeds - the precedence and replacement of feelings of guilt in relation to oneself.” - Anna Freud, 'Ego And The Mechanisms Of Defense'.

“Create around one at least a small circle where matters are arranged as one wants them to be.” - Anna Freud.

“That one lives without being able to judge oneself, criticize what one has achieved, and still enjoy what one does, is unimaginable to me.” - Anna Freud.

“I'm no longer afraid to say nothing.” - Anna Freud.

“Instead of turning away from them (war conditions) in instinctive horror, as people seem to expect, the child may turn towards them with primitive excitement. The real danger is not that the child, caught up all innocently in the whirlpool of war, will be shocked into illness.

The danger lies in the fact that the destruction ranging in the outer world may meet the very real aggressiveness ranging in the inside of the child.” - Anna Freud, 'War And Children'.

“Sometimes the most beautiful thing is precisely the one that comes unexpectedly and unearned.” - Anna Freud.

“We are imprisoned in the realm of life, like a sailor on his tiny boat, on an infinite ocean.” - Anna Freud.

“They can shut us up, but they can't stop us from having our own opinions.” - Anna Freud.

We Want Your Photos!
We Want Your Photos!

We Want Your Photos!

Do you have a photo you are happy to share that would improve this article?
Email your photos

More for You

Sources

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/35307.Anna_Freud (40%)

https://virtualpsychcentre.com/anna-freuds-40-best-quotes/ (5%)

https://quotepark.com/authors/anna-freud/ (10%)

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/anna-freud-quotes (30%)

https://en.yestherapyhelps.com/the-40-best-quotes-by-anna-freud-12608 (15%)

See All

Written by Lydia Samson

Bachelor in Science specializing in Mass Communication

Lydia Samson picture

Lydia SamsonBachelor in Science specializing in Mass Communication

A diligent and driven mass communications graduate from Caleb University, Lydia has experience in media and a passion for digital marketing and communications. She is an effective communicator and team-builder with strong analytical, management, and organizational skills. She is a self-starter with a positive, can-do attitude.

Read full bio >