Sabina Spielrein stands as both an important and tragic
figure--misunderstood or underestimated by her fellow analysts
(including Jung and Freud) and often erased in the annals of
psychoanalytic history. Her story has not only been largely forgotten,
but actively (though unconsciously) repressed as the figure who
represented a trauma buried in the early history of psychoanalysis.
Sabina Spielrein and the Beginnings of Psychoanalysis joins the growing
field of scholarship on Spielrein's distinctive and significant
theoretical innovations at the foundations of psychoanalysis and serves
as a new English language source of some of Spielrein's key works. The
book includes:
- Four chapters by Felicity Brock Kelcourse, Pamela Cooper-White, Klara
Naszkowska, and Adrienne Harris spanning Spielrein's life and
exploring her works in depth, with new insights about her influence
not only on Jung and Freud, but also Piaget in Geneva and Vygotsky and
Luria in Moscow.
- A timeline providing readers with important historical context
including Spielrein, Freud, Jung, other theorists, and historical
events in Europe (1850-1950).
- Twelve new translations of works by Spielrein, ten of which are the
first ever translations into English from the original French, German,
or Russian.
Spielrein's life and works are currently undergoing a serious and
necessary critical reclamation, as the fascinating chapters in this book
attest. Sabina Spielrein and the Beginnings of Psychoanalysis will be
of great significance to all psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic
psychotherapists, analytical psychologists, and scholars of
psychoanalysis interested in Spielrein and the early development of the
field.
