Laura Marling on Lou Andreas-Salome
Great Lives
BBC
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 August 2019
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Laura Marling nominates the first female psychoanalyst, Lou Andreas-Salomé.
Folk singer-songwriter, Laura has been unravelling the mysteries of Russian-born Lou Andreas-Salomé ever since she came across her name in the biography of the poet, Rainer Maria Rilke. She'd never heard of Salomé's name but discovered she was Rilke's literary mentor for years.
As well as this, she was the only woman allowed in Sigmund Freud's Inner Psychoanalytic Circle, and was proposed to by Friedrich Nietzsche, who called her “the cleverest person I ever knew...” Yet today, she's been largely forgotten.
Laura makes the case for remembering this enigmatic woman who inspired some of the greatest minds of our time.
Laura Marling has been nominated for the Grammy Awards, the Mercury Prize and has won a Brit award for best British Female Solo Artist.
Presented by Matthew Parris
Producer: Eliza Lomas in Bristol
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2019.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan |
| 0:05.2 | I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy |
| 0:10.2 | podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really. |
| 0:13.0 | Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh, |
| 0:18.0 | making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things. |
| 0:22.0 | But you know I also know that comedy is really |
| 0:24.4 | subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer |
| 0:29.6 | from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about. So if you |
| 0:36.2 | fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:41.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:45.8 | The philosopher Frederick Nietzsche called her the cleverest person I ever knew, and Nietzsche |
| 0:52.0 | was not a man to shower people with praise. |
| 0:55.0 | The poet Rayna Maria Rilker described her as an extraordinary woman. |
| 1:00.1 | She was the world's first female psychoanalyst and the only woman to be accepted into |
| 1:05.1 | Sigmund Freud's inner psychoanalysis circle. |
| 1:08.2 | Yet today, she's largely forgotten. |
| 1:10.9 | Deservedly, I'm going to be asking my guest, Laura Marling, who has chosen Lou |
| 1:16.9 | Andreas Salome, the Russian-born philosopher, psychoanalyst and author. Oh no, well, you see it so well. |
| 1:25.0 | Thousand artists news. |
| 1:30.0 | To be anything you choose. |
| 1:37.0 | Laura Marling released her first album aged just 18 and since she's gone on to become what some call the new Joanie Mitchell |
| 1:48.0 | not yet 30 she's already released six albums notable for their complex themes and clever witty lyrics. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.