Medical training and Polish mission work Lowenfeld followed her sister into the
London Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine for Women in
Bloomsbury, London. By the outbreak of
World War I, she had passed the minimum requirement to practice medicine, In 1914 she got a job at the
Royal Free Hospital followed by a short period at the
Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. In 1917 she got the
MRCS (Eng.) and LRCP (Lond.) and the
MB, BS (Lond.). In 1918 she became a
house surgeon at the
South London Hospital for Women. Further training was interrupted when in late 1918 she joined a mission to
Poland, as Medical Officer for the British Typhus Unit. She also worked with the American YMCA assisting the Polish Army and POW department in stemming infectious diseases in her father's ancestral town of
Chrzanów. The health of the children was a major influence on her later career as she speculated about the different outcomes in spite of their traumatic experiences. Lowenfeld returned to England briefly as war broke out between
Poland and Russia. She went on to
Warsaw to set up a medical department for prisoners of war and worked on improving
sanitation and undertook refugee work. Alongside this research, between 1926 and 1927 she undertook voluntary work as a medical officer at the newly opened pioneering health centre in South London, known as the
Peckham Experiment, a service integrating health and social work to combat inner city deprivation.
Child Therapy In 1928 Dr 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. By 1931, it had developed into the 'Institute for Child Psychology' (ICP). It was first shown to the psychology community in 1931 and later in 1937 to the
British Psychological Society conference it was observed by
Carl Gustav Jung who attended the conference. Subsequently, the theories and methods originated by Lowenfeld became the basis of a range of therapeutic techniques, in particular the development of
sandplay therapy credited to Dora M. Kalff, a Swiss Jungian analyst, who studied with Dr Lowenfeld. Lowenfeld's first book on her theories and techniques of child psychotherapy,
Play in Childhood, was published in 1935 in the USA where her techniques had become popular, and remains an influential if, not mainstream, work to this day. The other techniques she created were Lowenfeld Mosaics (1948),
Lowenfeld Poleidoblocs (1950s), and
Lowenfeld Kaleidoblocs (1960s). Summarising her legacy, The Dr. Margaret Lowenfeld Trust records it thus:- ''Her 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. She consequently invented non-verbal techniques that enabled them to convey their thoughts and feelings without resort to words.'' Her obituary, published February 1973 in
The Times, commented:-
...bringing a brilliant mind to the study of the psychology of children and to devising methods to identify and eliminate anti-social tendencies at a formative stage and release and develop their highest potentials. It continued that the practical application of her theories by professionals and local authorities had remarkable success with disturbed children and had made a significant contribution to the health of the community. It was also noted that her work had received greater recognition in the United States and the
Continent than in the UK. ==Later life==