Sabina Spielrein: biography of this psychiatrist and psychoanalyst

This author of Russian-Jewish origin was one of the first psychoanalysts in Europe.

Sabina Spielrein was a Russian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst whose life is interesting and, at the same time, tragic.

With a hard childhood and an even worse adulthood, this researcher was one of the first women to study a university degree, to devote herself to psychiatry and to be a pioneer in the field of pedagogical sciences. In this article we will deal with her story by means of an abridged biography of Sabina Spielrein..

Biography of Sabina Spielrein

Let's take a look at Spielrein's life trajectory, which stands out for its intellectual brilliance and, at the same time, for the hardness of her family relationships and, also, with one of her lovers.

Early years

Sabina Naftulovna Spielrein was born on November 7, 1885 in Rostov, Russia, into a traditional, upper-class Jewish family.

Although it was the norm in the city of Rostov for wealthy families to send their children to French schools, Sabina's parents chose to have her attend a more alternative and innovative elementary school. At that school the pedagogical approach was enlightened and liberal, and stood out in comparison to the French school.and stood out in comparison to the traditional Russian-French education in which the elites indoctrinated their children.

Even as a young child Sabina Spielrein was an avid learner, having extensive knowledge of music as well as speaking up to four languages: English, French, German and Yiddish, a language that would later serve her to become fluent in Biblical Hebrew. But despite being intellectually very restless and having a very high school performance, she was also a naughty child, who was often punished.

At the age of eleven was admitted to the Yekaterinskaya Gymnasium, a highly demanding secondary school..

Psychiatric confinement and contact with psychoanalysis

Sabina Spielrein's childhood and adolescence were marked by rather crude relations with her parents. Her father put her under great pressure to get good grades and forced her to practice psychoanalysis.and forced her to practice piano, violin and singing.

It was probably all this family pressure that caused the young Sabina to end up emotionally oversaturated, so that at the age of 18 she needed to be admitted to a psychiatric clinic. to a psychiatric clinic, far away from her native Russia, in Switzerland.. She was treated at the Burghölzli Psychiatric Hospital, belonging to the University of Zurich. She remained there from August 17, 1904 to June 1, 1905.

Spielrein's childhood, marked by stress and high demands, caused her to manifest depressive crises as an adult, as well as acute psychotic episodes.

It is curious that, as a psychiatric patient, she began to show interest in studying interest in studying medicine and in deepening her knowledge of mental disorders.. In fact, the figure of Carl Gustav Jung, who treated her, inspired her to opt for that profession. Jung treated Spielrein by applying recently developed psychoanalytic techniques to treat hysteria, a disorder that Sabina supposedly manifested.

According to the Swiss psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, Spielrein's own parents were hysterical.. The father fulfilled the profile of an impulsive and choleric person, in addition to being a physical and psychological abuser, while her mother was described as a childish woman.

After conducting the relevant analyses of Spielrein's life trajectory prior to her internment, Jung undertook a treatment with the young woman that proved to be successful. However, the relationship between Jung and Spielrein changed from therapist-patient to lovers.

Professional training.

After recovering, and taking advantage of the fact that he was in the city of Zurich, Spielrein began his medical studies at the University of Zurich, although not without leaving the clinic.but not before leaving Burghölzli's clinic.

The University of Zurich was one of the first to accept women among its students, making it a real pole of attraction for those who wished to obtain a university degree, especially those coming from Russia.

Sabina Spielrein was not the only Russian student on the faculty; however, thanks to her admission to the hospital, she had been able to improve her level of German, making her truly proficient in writing medical papers in that language, which gave her some advantage over her Slavic compatriots.

Spielrein graduated in medicine in 1911, defending a thesis on a case of schizophrenia called Über den psychologischen Inhalt eines Falles von Schizophrenie (On the psychological content of a case of schizophrenia).

Eugen Bleuler directed his thesisIt is one of the first theoretical contributions to the psychoanalytic approach to schizophrenia patients.

The formative years are somewhat dark for Spielrein. Despite being a great student, she had her ups and downs emotionally, she had her emotional ups and downs. In addition, she was still in love with Jung, who was a married man. She found it difficult to accept this reality, despite her desire to have a child with the psychoanalyst. After accepting this, he decided to leave for Munich, where he would spend a few months studying art history.

Later, as an important person in psychoanalysis, Spielrein was elected a member of the Wiener Wien Spielrein was elected a member of the Wiener Psychoanalyrische Vereinigung.

In this association she presented her thesis on the drive for destruction, entitled Destruktion als Ursache des Werdens (Destruction as the cause of becoming).

Years after university

In 1912 she married Pavel Scheftel, a Russian doctor, also of Jewish descent, leaving also of Jewish descent, leaving behind her period as Jung's lover. From this marriage she had two daughters, Renate and Eva.

In the following years she would dedicate herself to clinical work from the psychoanalytic approach in several German cities, such as Vienna and Berlin, but settling quite a lot in Geneva, Switzerland. There came to work in Édouard Claparèd's laboratory.e.

While in Geneva, Spielrein focused on topics related to pedagogy and developmental psychology, giving lectures on psychoanalysis applied to children at the Institut Jean-jacques Rousseau.

In 1922 she came into contact with another of the most important figures of 20th century psychology, Jean Piaget, and she became his psychoanalyst.and she was his psychoanalyst. Then, in 1923, Sabina Spielrein returned to Russia, which had already become a Soviet socialist republic. There she became a member of the Russian Psychoanalytic Association, in addition to working as an outpatient physician.

In Moscow she worked in a pedagogical institution, popularly known as the "white infirmary", where the idea of raising children as free persons as early as possible was promoted. It is because of this that the Soviet government opted to close this center, since any display of individualistic thinking within the borders of the newly created Soviet Union was frowned upon by the communist authorities.

The Soviet government itself falsely accused the institution, stating that it was a center for individualistic thinking.The Soviet government itself falsely accused the institution of sexual perversion of children.

Final years

In 1936 the Soviet Union definitively banned pedagogy, so that Spielrein no longer had a legal license to engage in this discipline and was forced to choose to become a doctor in public schools..

In addition, psychoanalysis was outlawed in the union during the 1930s, although Sabina Spielrein continued to work applying this current until 1940.

It was in this decade that things got especially rough for Spielrein. Her husband Pavel died of a Heart attack in 1937, and her three brothers were arrested and forced to work in gulags during Iosif Stalin's Great Purge (1936-1938). during Iósif Stalin's Great Purge (1936-1938). Sabina's father died in 1938 of unknown causes, although there are suspicions of government intervention as well.

The reasons why the Spielreins suffered such a fate have to do with the intention of eliminating any perspective not in accordance with Stalin's regime, being this family very influenced by foreign currents.

Fortunately for Sabina, she would not be purged, but this did not save her from having an end as tragic as that of her brothers, only this time the executioners were Germans.

In August 1942 the city of Rostov was occupied by the Hitlerite Deutsche Wehrmacht, and Sabina and her two daughters were murdered, as were many other Jewish citizens.Sabina and her two daughters were killed, as were many other Jewish citizens of the city.

Sabina Spielrein's Contributions and Significance

Sabina Spielrein's main contribution to psychoanalysis is her concept of the her concept of the destructive and sadistic drive, which led Freud himselfwhich led Freud himself to postulate the existence of the death drive, that is, the tendency to want to generate more evil than good. This concept makes sense when viewed from the perspective of the times in which they lived, marked by war, anti-Semitism and genocide.

Another of Spielrein's interesting contributions, made before leaving for Vienna, is his study of a case of schizophrenia, specifically that of a very deteriorated woman, with delusions of death and decadence. In this case, Spielrein hypothesized that behind these delusions there were two apparently antagonistic tendencies: on the one hand, her tendency to destruction, to want to die, while on the other hand there was a marked sexual drive.

Spielrein's personal history, together with her scientific production, have made her a character of great importance in psychoanalysis, although overshadowed by the figures of Freud and Jung and, above all, for having had a relationship with Jung, making her more famous for her love affairs than for her extensive work. Despite this, Spielrein is recognized as one of the first female psychoanalytic authors, as well as being a pioneer in the use of what, in her time, was a recently created neologism, the term schizophrenia.

Her interest in child psychology made her a pioneer in the field of developmental psychology, being also one of the first authors in the field of child psychology.She was also one of the first authors to link Freudian postulates with language development.

Bibliographical references:

• Spielrein, S. (1911). Über den psychologischen Inhalt eines Falles von Schizophrenie (Dementia Praecox). Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen 3: 329-400.
• Spielrein, S. (1912). Die Destruktion als Ursache des Werdens. Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen 4: 465-503.
• Alnaes, K. (2004). The true story of Sabina Spielrein. Madrid: Ediciones Siruela.
• Kerr, J. (1995). The secret history of psychoanalysis. Barcelona: Editorial Crítica.
• Simón Macías, Trinidad (2014). Juego Limpio. Sabina Spielrein between Jung and Freud and the present times. Psimática Clínica.
• Fuentes Barco, M., Martínez Alonso, B., Piñeiro García, S., & Angosto Saura, T.. (2008). Biography of Sabina Spielrein (1885-1942): a history of the early years of psychoanalysis. Revista de la Asociación Española de Neuropsiquiatría, 28(1), 109-117. Retrieved January 01, 2020, from http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0211-57352008000100007&lng=es&tlng=es.