Invisible Women

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Sigmund describes a woman who could be either his wife or his wife’s sister to Lou Andreas to see if she could differentiate between the two. One woman he refers to with tenderness; the other with patience. Lou does not respond quickly, but when she does, she tells him another story about a woman down the hall.

With frustration, the doctor says, “I’ve told you my rules! I will tell you about a woman and you will tell me if she exists, if my imaginings of woman are true to your experience.”

The Russian responds, “I can tell you about thousands of women, doctor, and each of them will be the very woman you have just described. I can tell you about hundreds of women, and in them, you will see none of your wives, none of the women you love, as a point of differentiation. I can tell you about myself or your wife or your daughter and I can give them different names, but they will only be as I tell them to you. You cannot create women of your own out of the pieces I give you.”

Freud says, “But tell me if they are real. Tell me if the women I speak about are real.”

“When you describe these women, you give me only their characteristics as reflections of yourself, and so yes, Freud, these women are real, given that you yourself are real enough to touch.”