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Childhood is not a [[Freudian ]] [[concept]].

A large part of [[psychoanalytic ]] [[theory ]] concerns the early years of [[life ]] and childhood but, in a certain [[sense]], we can say along with Donald [[Winnicott ]] that "[[Freud ]] neglected childhood as a [[state ]] in itself" (1961).

Only after a wrenching period of revision (1895-1901) could [[Sigmund Freud ]] come to acknowledge the [[active ]] [[role ]] of the [[child ]] in [[sexual ]] [[seduction ]] and to abandon his earlier view of [[children ]] as innocent victims of the incestuous desires of [[adults]].

This [[reversal]], moreover, led him to theorize childhood [[sexuality ]] for the first [[time]].

"In the beginning," he would later write, "my statements [[about ]] [[infantile ]] sexuality were founded almost exclusively on the findings of [[analysis ]] in adults which led back into the [[past]].

It was in connection with the [[treatment ]] of adults that Freud became interested in observing small children.

As he wrote apropos of the [[case ]] of "Little [[Hans]]," "I have for years encouraged my pupils and friends to collect observations on the [[sexual life ]] of children, which is normally either skillfully overlooked or deliberately denied" (1909b).

Freud indeed never abandoned this line of enquiry, as [[witness ]] his celebrated account of the "<i>Fort/Da</i>" [[game ]] played with a cotton reel by one of his grandsons, the personal observation of which he used to support his [[theoretical ]] conclusions.

As related in <i>Beyond the [[Pleasure ]] [[Principle]]</i> (1920g), the fact that an act provoking [[unpleasure ]] would be repeated, coupled with [[clinical ]] findings from his treatment of [[traumatic ]] [[neuroses]], was what led Freud to formulate the concept of the [[death ]] [[instinct]].

After the publication of the <i>[[Three ]] Essays on the Theory of Sexuality</i> (1905d), the first generation of [[analysts]]

began observing and reporting on the [[behavior ]] of their own children in reference to [[infantile sexuality]], the [[Oedipus ]] [[complex]], and [[castration ]] [[anxiety]].

[[Anna Freud ]] shared in this [[activity ]] (Geissmann and Geissmann, 1992).

Soon these analysts were joined by specialists on child behavior who had themselves been [[analyzed]].

They began to observe specific populations of disturbed children, such as delinquents, then certain periods of childhood, notably that of the earliest [[mother]]-child relations, and finally certain types of problems encountered (feeding, thumb-sucking, attempts at [[separation]], etc.).

In so doing they were "systematically constructing a psychoanalytic [[psychology ]] of the child, integrating two kinds of data: data based on direct observation and data based on reconstructions with adults" (Freud, [[1968]]).

It is important to note, along with Anna Freud, that [[psychoanalysts ]] at first showed considerable reluctance to undertake such direct observation of children.

The pioneers were more concerned to underscore the differences between observable behavior and hidden [[drives ]] than they were to point up the similarities.

Their chief aim was still to show that [[manifest ]] behavior concealed [[unconscious ]] [[processes]].

Anna Freud was initially interested in the [[defense ]] mechanisms, which became accessible to an observational approach; she then turned her attention to children's behavior, to what they produced, and, lastly to the child's ego.

She sought to include a psychology of the ego within the [[analytic ]] framework, an effort further developed later by her friend Heinz [[Hartmann]], whom she never completely disavowed.

On a [[practical ]] level she created institutions for young children, the first in [[Vienna ]] in 1924-1925, the last and most complex, which was established after the war in [[London]], [[being ]] the Hampstead [[Clinic]], an extension of Hampstead Nurseries.

This [[work ]] involved treating the child—not only with analysis—to prevent further disturbances, conducting research, and [[training ]] [[future ]] specialists in children's education and pedagogy by applying previously acquired [[knowledge]].

During this same period, Melanie [[Klein ]] also became interested in childhood.

Starting from the [[psychoanalysis ]] of young children, she constructed a detailed picture of the [[internal ]] [[world ]] of the young child.

Like [[dream ]] [[interpretation ]] for Freud, the free play of the child was for Klein the royal road to the unconscious and to the [[fantasy ]] life.

In <i>The Psychoanalysis of Children</i> (1932), she argued forcefully that play translated the child's [[fantasies]], desires, and lived [[experience ]] into a [[symbolic ]] mode.

Her [[technique ]] consisted in analyzing play just as one would analyze [[dreams ]] and free [[association ]] in adults, that is, by [[interpreting ]] fantasies, conflicts, and defenses.

The inner world of the young child as she describes it is filled with monsters and demons, and the picture of infantile sexuality she presents is strongly tinged with [[sadism]].

In discussing the death [[drive]], she describes an [[infant ]] whose first act is not simply a gesture of pure [[love ]] toward the [[object ]] ([[breast]]) but also a [[sadistic ]] act associated with the [[action ]] of the drive.

Here, as Freud had earlier, Klein challenged a [[universal ]] [[human ]] shibboleth: the innocent soul of the child.

The direct observation of young children has expanded considerably in [[recent ]] years, helped in part advances in [[technology]]: it is now possible to study newborns and even fetuses.

It is interesting to note that, in this way, the [[significance ]] and the complexity of the [[mental ]] life of the very young child have been confirmed, along therefore with the intuitions and efforts of psychoanalysts [[working ]] during the early twentieth century.

It is clear that psychoanalysis has renewed our [[vision ]] and [[understanding ]] of the world of childhood.

However, that world remains highly complex, especially its [[pathology]], and it is important to avoid [[seeing ]] it in [[terms ]] of [[adult ]] behavior.

Also, while psychoanalysis has enabled us to better [[understand ]] that world, we must [[remember]], as Anna Freud remarked at the end of her life, that it does not have the [[power ]] to eliminate childhood neuroses and turn the child and childhood into that [[place ]] where we would so much love to find innocence, the [[mythical ]] innocence of a paradise lost.

[[Stage ]] of life extending between [[birth ]] and [[puberty ]] which marks the onset of adolescence.

# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1905d). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. SE, 7: 123-243.# ——. (1909b). Analysis of a [[phobia ]] in a five-year-old boy. SE, 10: 1-149.# ——. (1914d). On the [[history ]] of the [[psycho]]-analytic movement. SE, 14: 1-66.# ——. (1920g). Beyond the [[pleasure principle]]. SE,18:1-64.