Lou Salomé; a hundred years since Narzissmus als Doppelrichtung — Reflections on a woman's life in the history of psychoanalysis

Using Lou Salomé’s article Narzissmus als Doppelrichtung (1921) as an inspirational reference, this essay demonstrates how Salomé’s work inspired Freud and other early thinkers in psychoanalysis. Following a brief account of Salomé’s life and a synopsis of her article is an exploration of her concept of the « All », in which she introduced a fundamentally womanly and motherly « way of thinking » that may have proved fertile ground for further thinking about object-relating and the importance of the mother on preoedipal development. In this perspective it would seem that Salomé has not yet been given the credit that she deserves for her work.