I have often been asked how I came to write a book about famous historical figures who had a secret case of syphilis, me with no medical degree, not an academic. Having this website, a place to ponder randomly, I started to think about how this 19thth century woman has enhanced my life.
Bruno Bettleheim said that the outcome of therapy is already to be found in the first session. In a sense this class was like a first therapy session, if I consider that I have spent so many years relating in one way or another to that simple story.
Petersburg and who had come to Europe to study. They had a falling out in December. Nietzsche, in poor health, wandered and wrote until when he had a breakdown and was taken to an asylum. He spent the last eleven years of his life insane.
Lou, who went on to be a writer of fiction and essays, was acquainted with many 19th and early 20th century European intellectuals, writers and artists. She had a love affair with the poet Rainier Maria Rilke. And in her later years she was dear friend, student and colleague of Sigmund Freud.
She spent her last years as an analyst, seeing patients and writing about psychoanalysis. In I returned to Bucknell for a colloquium honoring Joe. Before that, I enjoyed reviewing the thick folder of letters he and I exchanged over fifty years.
