A group of women sit in a circle, holding toys -from tiny dolls’ house utensils to wind-up dancing dolls. One by one, they share their memories of their childhood linked to that particular toy.
“What I am trying to explain from this exercise is that the power of a happy childhood memory will last for years,” says Caroline Freud Penny. The great-grand daughter of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, and one of the modern world’s great thinkers, she is here from the UK to coincide with the tsunami anniversary, conducting a two-day training programme for pre-school teachers on ‘Mental Health and Wellbeing for Children’, at the Healing Hands Centre in Matara.
We meet for a quick interview during her lunch break but I am able to sit through the whole training programme, watching Caroline dressed in an emerald green sari and light green jacket and a pair of casual sandals along with her teaching partner Lucy creating a warm and friendly learning environment for the teachers.
Obviously reluctant to talk at length about her famous ancestor and family connections, she says she doesn’t make a big thing about it and tries not to add “Freud” to her name at work as it can be rather intimidating.
Caroline’s grandfather Martin Freud was the oldest of Sigmund Freud’s six children. Unlike her great grandfather and her sister Ida, both psychologists, she is a family therapist, and says laughingly that “it is like a family culture”. By the time she left high school, Caroline had decided to follow in her famous great-grandfather and aunt’s footsteps and study psychology. She went on to London University and has a degree in Psychology from Swansea University. Also a trained teacher she has been working with parents and children for 25 years
Recalling memories of childhood, she says what influenced her most in her choice of career, was that both in her grandfather’s house and hers, there were always discussions on the work of Sigmund Freud. There was a constant flow of visitors to discuss and disseminate the works of Sigmund and Anna Freud, her grand-aunt. She remembers her childhood visits to Hampstead in North London where Anna, the youngest of Sigmund Freud’s children lived. This is where the Freuds moved to when they left Vienna in 1938 during World War 2.
The house is now a museum dedicated to Freud’s life and works.
Of all Sigmund Freud’s theories, Caroline finds “The unconscious” most useful in her work as a family therapist as it helps her to uncover the influence of early childhood experiences. “It helps me to think about how people behave, and their family script,” says Caroline.
“My work involves raising people’s awareness on the relationship between the child and parent. In the UK some families need support in parenting, especially when the children (teens) are violent to parents, and not doing well in school, as well as when it comes to curing post-natal depression.”
“If I can make a difference to families, their children and support parents, so that they can make their children achieve their potential, then I have met my goal in life” says Caroline.
|
E-mail