[Lou Andreas-Salome (1861-1937)--psychoanalytical and feministic contribution to understanding her biography]

Lou (Louise) Andreas-Salomé's life and work has preoccupied many biographers. The interest may have be sparked by her liaisons with many of the greatest men of her time. She had an intimate relationship with Friedrich Nietzsche in a period of great change for him. She was Rainer Marie Rilke's mistress for several years. And she pursued a close friendship and working relationship with Sigmund Freud in the latter part of her life. But her significance goes beyond these associations. She was a celebrated novelist and essayist in her own right, with ten novels and more than 50 essays, also on psychoanalytical subjects. She has been viewed as femme fatale, opportunist, feminist, radical, liberal, but also as a significant contributor to psychoanalytical thought. There have been two biographical approaches: a psychoanalytical approach focusing on her loss of father-figures and later difficult relationships with famous men, and a feministic approach accusing psychoanalysts of not contributing to insight, but belittling Salomé's legitimate position. A fuller understanding may be obtained by integrating these two views.