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This book is the translation into English of a biography of a woman, better known to history as ‘Freud's famous “case of female homosexuality”.’ The authors’ aim is to go beyond the analysis with Freud in their portrayal of Margarethe ‘Gretl’ von Trautenegg (née Csonka, alias Sidonie Csillag), to reconstruct her life which spanned the twentieth century (1900-99).1 Both authors died before the publication of the English edition, though one participated in beginning the work of translation. Diana Voigt (1960-2009) - the granddaughter of a friend of Sidonie Csillag - was the vice-chair of the Austrian Lesbian and Gay Forum and published on issues to do with women, the environment and eco-psychology. Ines Rieder (1954-2015) was an editor, journalist and activist, studying and publishing mostly on twentieth-century lesbian lives. The book is based on several in-depth interviews conducted with Margarethe over the course of about four years when she was in her nineties; these interviews were then supplemented with historical research on her family and her social and political environment. In 2004, her estate was given to the Freud Museum in Vienna by the authors who owned it.
In the preface, Ines Rieder explains the genesis of the book, describing their method and how they arrived at the chosen (published) name for the protagonist. ‘Sidonie’ had not wanted to reveal her real name; it was published only in the 2012 German edition. But within the text, the authors still kept the pseudonym, Sidonie Csillag, which they chose after Gretl's death. Although the commentary on authorial method is relevant, I would have found a more comprehensive introduction that addressed questions about the importance of Sidonie's life even further beyond her encounter with Freud - including more on the history of psychoanalysis as well as the social and political contexts of lesbianism and ideas about gender and sexuality as they shifted over the decades - particularly useful as it would have hel