A look at the Salomé-Freud correspondence

The author notes that the changing emphasis of the correspondence between Lou Andreas-Salomé and Sigmund Freud over the years reflects certain aspects of the development of every analyst. Her contributions are shown to illustrate the evolution of the analyst's relationship with theory and the growth of his or her clinical capacity and involvement. Two phases in the analyst's clinical progression are stated to be discernible in the correspondence, marked by changes of direction that mirror the changing nature of her relationship with Freud. Theoretical considerations predominate in the first phase, while clinical aspects gradually come to the fore in the second. Freud is seen to be offering Salomé a kind of supervision by letter. Lou's underlying transference to Freud also emerges from the correspondence, its two aspects being the relationship to a big brother and to a father respectively. Freud's complementary transference to Salomé is also discussed, partly in connection with her relationship with his daughter Anna. The author's arguments are supported by extensive quotations from the correspondence, biographical works and Lou Andreas-Salomé's published diaries and reminiscences. Last but not least, her relationship with Freud in the author's view indirectly raises the issue of that of any analyst to the founder of psychoanalysis.