Suzanne Cassirer had analysis with Freud in 1933. Freud wrote about her in his letters to his former patient and pupil Jeanne Lampl-de Groot (1). Reading his comments, the author was struck by their content and by his use of language and tone. It seems as if, soon after the initial contact with his analysand, Freud became unable to hold on to his analytic neutrality. In this paper an attempt will be made to clarify what may have happened between Freud and his patient by trying to reconstruct the social-historical and personal context of their meeting as well as by following the development of ideas about the psychoanalytic attitude and technique. The author will use Freud’s own writings, specifically those on the transference, and those of Melanie Klein, James Strachey and later Kleinian analysts, ending with John Steiner’s ideas regarding the effect of reality and morality on the analyst while receiving his patients’ communications. A further aim of this paper is to portray a lesser known female analyst closely linked to the vibrant psychoanalytic scene of 1920’s Berlin.

1) The author is writing a biography of Jeanne Lampl-de Groot.