The Story of Sidonie C

More about the book

Redefining one of Freud's Most Controversial Cases. At age 17, Margarethe Csonka fell deeply in love with a stunning and notorious upper-class courtesan, attempted suicide when she was rejected, and was sent by her parents to Prof. Freud to be "normalized". The attempted "cure" was a failure.This biography of Margarethe Csonka-Trautenegg ( 1900-1999) offers a fully-rounded picture of a willful and psychologically aesthete. As Freud's never-before-identified "case of female homosexuality", her analysis continuous to spark often heated psychoanalytic debate. Margarethe's( Sidonie's) experiences spanned the twentieth century. Jewish by birth, she fled upper-class life in Vienna for Cuba to escape the Nazis, only to return post-war to a "leaden" city and relative poverty. Fleeing again, she took various jobs abroad, and returned permanently only in old age. The interviews and taped oral histories that form the basis of this book were produced during the final five years of her life. Well researched historical background information supplements the story of Margarethe's journey across time and continents.