Lou Andreas-Salome: biography of this Russian psychoanalyst and writer.

A summary of the life of Lou Andreas-Salomé, thinker and referent of psychoanalysis.

The birth of psychoanalysis was accompanied by a generation of intellectuals, of which Lou Andreas-Salome is part.

We are going to make a journey through the life of this Russian author by means of a biography of Lou Andreas-SalomeWe are going to take a journey through the life of this Russian author through a biography of Lou Andreas-Salomé, in order to know the major life events as well as the most remarkable contributions that she materialized throughout an extensive career. With all this, we will contribute to make visible the importance of this figure.

Short biography of Lou Andreas-Salomé

Lou Andreas-Salomé was born in the year 1861 in the city of St. Petersburg, which belonged, at that time, to the Russian Empire.. The full name she received at birth was Luiza Gustavovna, Salome. Her family had German and French ancestry. The couple had five other children, apart from Lou, and she was the youngest of them all.

This was a wealthy family, which received a high-level education. All the children had the opportunity to learn not only Russian, but also German and French, which later allowed Lou Andreas-Salomé to travel all over Europe and to educate herself in different fields, something that at that time was only available to a few.

The von Salomé marriage was of a Protestant Christian persuasion. However, Lou was only attracted to the more intellectual side of everything related to religion, so she gave up being confirmed when she was old enough to do so. Even so, she continued to attend to hear the homily of Hendrik Gillot, a local pastor who took her as a pupil, given her fascination.

Gillot acted as his mentor and brought Lou Andreas-Salomé closer to theological and philosophical subjects of study, and even to different European writers.and even to different European writers. The two shared a taste for intellectual matters and the relationship was an impetus for Lou's growth. However, the pastor ended up falling in love with his ward.

But Lou Andreas-Salomé was not interested in him in that sense. Besides, Gillot had a wife and children and was even twenty-five years older than her. Therefore, his intentions did not go further, but although they maintained their relationship as teacher and pupil, it was never the same for Lou.

Departure from Russia and training

In 1879 her father, Gustav Ludwig, passed away. This event prompted Lou Andreas-Salomé's family to leave Russia behind and move to Zurich, Switzerland. At the time, many academic institutions admitted only male students to their classrooms, but Lou was admitted to the University of Zurich as a visiting scholar, Lou was admitted to the University of Zurich as a visiting scholar..

This was how she began her education in the fields of philosophy and theology. However, this stage proved to be eventful, as a lung condition became apparent. Doctors recommended that she stay away from cold and damp climates, which led both Lou Andreas-Salomé and Lou Andreas-Salomé and her mother moved to Rome, the Italian capital.the Italian capital.

This new stage in Rome, by chance, would have a great relevance for the life of this author. It was here that she met Paul Ludwig Carl Heinrich Rée, philosopher and physician. This meeting took place in a literary salon. Rée fell in love with Lou Andreas-Salomé and soon asked her to marry him. Lou refused his proposal, but proposed another plan.

What he suggested is that they simply live together while studying, creating a sort of academic group. Not only that, but he he proposed that they be joined by a third person, none other than the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who was a friend of Paul Rée's. Just as had happened to him and the pastor, he fell in love with Lou as soon as he met her, and asked her to marry him, which she refused, once again.

However, the three of them remained united and maintained their idea of creating an academic commune, for which they undertook a series of trips, in the company of Lou Andreas-Salomé's own mother, to different parts of Italy and Switzerland until they found the ideal location for Winterplan, which would be the name of the project.

Unfortunately, they did not find the place they were looking for, which should have been a disused monastery in one of these places. So they had no choice but to abandon the idea. They returned together to Leipzig, Germany, where they lived together for a while, before Lou and Paul left, which seriously affected Nietzsche's state of mind, as he would reflect in some of his works.This seriously affected Nietzsche's state of mind, as he would reflect in some of his works.

Berlin period and marriage

The destination of Lou Andreas-Salomé and Paul Rée was Berlin. There they lived together for some time, until Lou met Friedrich Carl Andreas met Friedrich Carl Andreas, whom she eventually married in 1887.. He would be her partner until the end of her life, even though Lou did not contemplate marital relations in a traditional way, so she related to other people in an intimate way.

In fact, he is related to some of the great personalities of the time. Although the extent of the friendship is unknown, it is certain that Lou Andreas-Salomé dealt with the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, with the politician Georg Ledebour, with the psychoanalyst Victor Tausk and even with the father of psychoanalysis himself, Sigmund Freud.

Lou herself later wrote a work called Lebensrückblick autobiographical in nature, in which she recounts this stage of her life and provides information, for example, about her relationship with Freud, which she describes as merely intellectual. Among the correspondence they exchanged, Freud attributes to Lou the ability to understand individuals better than they understand themselves.

Through this relationship, Lou Andreas-Salomé was also trained in psychoanalysis, a subject she mastered profoundly.She mastered it deeply, as Freud himself acknowledged in this letter. At this point in Lou's life, Paul Rée had completely disappeared, for since her marriage to Andreas, their relationship was no longer the same.

With the aforementioned Rainer Maria Rilke, the friendship was especially close, despite their age difference, as she was just over fifteen years his senior. The two connected strongly as they shared feelings about the loss of faith, which they had both experienced early in their lives.

Lou Andreas-Salomé returned to his native Russia. She made a first trip in the company of her husband, but the following year, in 1900, she returned with Rilke himself, returned with Rilke himself, and acted as his representative, putting him in contact with the most renowned intellectuals and artists of the time. and artists of the time, such as the writer Leo Tolstoy himself. Although Lou and Rilke were lovers for three years, their friendship lasted a lifetime.

Last stage and death

Lou Andreas-Salomé continued her work as one of the most renowned psychoanalysts in all of Europe.. However, when she reached a certain age, her health began to suffer. She experienced Heart ailments for which she had to spend long periods in the hospital. In addition, her elderly husband also suffered from various ailments.

Perhaps that was what contributed to the fact that both lived a closer relationship at this stage, which helped their marriage to last four decades, ending with the death of Andreas, in 1930, due to cancer. This disease also affected Lou later, who had to undergo surgery to overcome it.

Finally, it was in 1937 when, at the age of 76, Lou Andreas-Salomé died, due to a renal complication that caused an excess of urea in her blood, from which she could not recover, given her delicate health. He died in the German city of Göttingen.

In the last days of his life, he had to live the misfortune of seeing how the Gestapo, the secret police of the Nazi regime that the Gestapo, the secret police of the Nazi regime, which already controlled Germany, broke into her home to confiscate her books, accusing her of promoting what they called "Jewish science", because she had volumes of her own.accusing her of promoting what they called "Jewish science", because she had volumes by authors who belonged to this ethnic group, as was the case of Sigmund Freud.

The figure of Lou Andreas-Salomé endures to this day, among other things for having been a pioneer in the liberation of women, a phenomenon that would continue to develop throughout the twentieth century, but that she had already lived in first person several decades earlier.

Her mortal remains lie next to those of her husband, in the cemetery of Groner Landstrasse, in the city of Göttingen, where they both died.