Lou Salomé represents a unique figure in modern western thought -charismatic and cerebral, feminine and forthright, meditative and dynamic. Her extraordinary life and work is most often associated with three major figures — and areas of thought — of her period: Friedrich Nietzsche in philosophy, Rainer Maria Rilke in the arts, and Sigmund Freud in psychoanalysis. Her various liaisons with these central figures has been cause for her inclusion in historical chronicles.