Hug-Hellmuth, Hermine

Hermine Hug-Hellmuth (1871–1924) is a principal pioneer of psychoanalysis with children. From its very beginnings, the practice of child psychoanalysis was an affair of women. This was in part because most analysts were men, as women had generally been precluded from studying medicine. The care of children, including their psychoanalytic care, was a role allocated to women. Sigmund Freud himself noted that this was a domain of women analysts and promoted his daughter, Anna Freud, as the one who compensated for his neglect in this area. Melanie Klein was Anna Freud’s rival for the crown of pioneer of child psychoanalysis. Both of these women, however, only published any work of significance from the late 1920s onwards. They were preceded by Hermine Hug-Hellmuth and Sabina Spielrein, ...