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The first English translation of In der Schule bei Freud (Zurich, , 1958) contains diary entries covering the period September 1912 to November 1913, starting with a reference to the Weimar Congress of 1911 and ending more or less with the Munich Congress in September 1913, when the Swiss members led by Jung left the Psychoanalytic Association. One is disposed to expect some valuable glimpses of a period of agreed historicity. The inevitable questions arise: does the diary clarify anything already known or provide fresh information? Who is the diarist and what are her credentials?
The second question is answered by Professor Leavy in his introduction, which is by far the most interesting part of the book. He is affectionate, respectful as well as critical in his assessment of this literary femme fatale et inspiratrice who would have earned her right to vicarious immortality by her friendships with Nietzsche and Rilke alone, not to mention Freud and at least half a dozen other great figures of her time. Lou Andreas Salome was already 50 years old and a well-recognized journalist and popular writer when she discovered Freud and psychoanalysis. Her appreciation and loyalty are touching, and her championship eager. Freud, seven years her senior, emerges chivalrous, as expected, and the fascination he felt for her is never anything but respectable. His indulgence of her is shown by her exemption from the limitations he felt it necessary to enforce on medical guests who wanted to attend his as well as Adler's evening groups (pp. 40-1). He seemed to idealize her, attributing her deep involvement in psychoanalysis to ‘nothing but the kind of neutral objective interest that one feels when embarking on new researches’ (p. 89).
It seems more likely that the circle round Freud, so very agreeable to Lou, represented for her the family circle of elder brothers and father with her as the indulged and only girl. She appears to have behaved with circumspection in the nurser