Margaret Frances Jane Lowenfeld was a British pioneer of child psychology and play therapy, a medical researcher in paediatric medicine, and an author of several publications and academic papers on the study of child development and play.
17 Facts About Margaret Lowenfeld
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Margaret Lowenfeld Lowenfield was born in Lowndes Square in Knightsbridge, London on 4 February 1890, as their second daughter, to a British mother and Polish father.
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Margaret Lowenfeld soon became a wealthy businessman through several ventures, such as buying up rundown theatres in the West End of London and starting the Kops Brewery in Fulham, selling non-alcoholic beer as the temperance movement took hold.
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Margaret Lowenfeld was educated at Cheltenham Ladies College, England, with her older sister, Helena Rosa Wright who went on to be an influential figure in birth control and family planning.
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Margaret Lowenfeld followed her sister into the London Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine for Women in Bloomsbury, London.
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Margaret Lowenfeld worked with the American YMCA assisting the Polish Army and POW department in stemming infectious diseases in her father's ancestral town of Chrzanow.
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Margaret Lowenfeld returned to England briefly as war broke out between Poland and Russia.
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Margaret Lowenfeld went on to Warsaw to set up a medical department for prisoners of war and worked on improving sanitation and undertook refugee work.
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In 1921 due to her own illness, Margaret Lowenfeld returned to London, and came into contact with Wilfred Trotter, a pioneer of both neurosurgery and social psychology.
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Margaret Lowenfeld became a researcher at the Mothercraft Training Centre studying infant health and was influenced by Truby King, a pioneer of childcare.
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Margaret Lowenfeld established a private practice in Queen Anne Street, London, which she kept for the rest of her working life.
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In 1928 Dr Margaret Lowenfeld established the Children's Clinic for the Treatment and Study of Nervous and Difficult Children, one of the first child guidance clinics in Britain, set up in Notting Hill, London.
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Margaret Lowenfeld's outstanding contributions sprang from her recognition that play is an important activity in children's development and that language is often an unsatisfactory medium for children to express their experiences.
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Margaret Lowenfeld consequently invented non-verbal techniques that enabled them to convey their thoughts and feelings without resort to words.
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Margaret Lowenfeld's obituary, published February 1973 in The Times, commented:-.
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Margaret Lowenfeld was joined there by her longtime colleague from the ICP, Ville Anderson, who became her companion and carer until Lowenfeld's death on 2 February 1973 at St Johns and St Elizabeth's Hospital, London.
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Margaret Lowenfeld is buried alongside her sister and her cousin Gunther and his wife Claire Loewenfeld, at the Church of St Lawrence Cholesbury.