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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|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|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.