Freud's 17-year-old case study "Dora" is well known in the literature of psychoanalysis. Yet few know the full story-told here for the first time-of this notable woman, who walked out on Freud after three months and, in a sense, cured herself. Born into an important Jewish-Austrian family, Ida Bauer Adler suffered from "petite hysteria"-loss of voice, difficulty breathing, migraines, fainting spells-brought on by the overt sexuality of her relatives. Growing up in a home beset with syphilis and tuberculosis, she overcame her father's marital infidelity, her mother's so-called housewife psychosis and her own seduction by the husband of her father's mistress. She married, raised a son, started a small business, stayed close with her brother, Otto, leader of the Austrian Socialist party, and survived Hitler's invasion of Vienna. Eventually, she made her way to the U.S. to rejoin her famous son, maestro of the San Francisco Opera House.

Karin Bergoeoe Larsson (1859-1928) was a mother of eight and wife to Sweden's beloved painter, Carl Larsson. She was herself a well-regarded artist but gave it up when she married, at the request of her husband. Replacing paintbrushes and canvas with needles and cloth, she turned a somewhat ugly cottage-Lilla Hyttnas in the tiny village of Sundborn, Sweden-into a designer showcase. Inspired by the Swedish countryside, she filled the home with handcrafted wall hangings, bed coverings, tablecloths and pillow covers, while she greatly influencing her husband's work by encouraging him to move away from dark oils to more illuminating and light-filled watercolors. The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., considers Karin "the first designer of what would become known as Swedish Modern." Her influence continues to inform the concepts of retail giant IKEA.