Sabina Spielrein: Forgotten Pioneer of Psychoanalysis

Sabina Spielrein is perhaps best known for her love affair with her doctor, Carl Gustav Jung. Their intense therapeutic relationship led to a mutual fascination that lasted, for Spielrein, for the rest of her life. It is debatable whether Spielrein and Jung's relationship was consummated, but it did give birth to some of the most important ideas within psychoanalysis and analytical psychology today, the most notable being that of the death instinct. But what happened to Spielrein and why have her story and work remained in the dark for so many years? This second edition of Sabina Spielrein: Forgotten Pioneer of Psychoanalysis complements the first edition by retaining many of the most important documents about her life and work. Included in this edition are Jung's hospital records of his treatment of Spielrein, Jung's letters to Spielrein following her discharge in 1905, extracts from her personal diary, and her ground breaking paper on the development of language, "The origin of the child's words Papa and Mama."New material includes Spielrein's famous paper, "Destruction as a cause of coming into being", in which she formulates her theory of the death drive, a paper describing her place and contribution within Freud's Vienna Circle, commentaries on the mutual erotic transference between Spielrein and Jung, and a theoretical discussion of her seminal ideas on aggression. This new edition compiles the essential writings of Spielrein along with commentaries by prominent psychoanalytic and Jungian scholars. It is the definitive source book on Spielrein for clinicians, scholars and historians of psychoanalysis. Coline Covington, Ph.D. is a training analyst of the Society of Analytical Psychology and the British Psychotherapy Foundation. She is former editor of the Journal of Analytical Psychology and former chair of the British Psychoanalytic Council. She is co-editor with Paul Williams, Jean Arundale and Jean Knox of Terrorism and War: Unconscious Dynamics of Political Violence, published in 2002 by Karnac Books. Her latest book, Shrinking the News: Headline Stories on the Couch, was published by Karnac Books in 2013. She is in private practice in London.

Coline Covington is a Jungian analyst and psychotherapist working in private practice in London. Barbara Wharton is a training analyst of the Society of Analytical Psychology, London.

I think this looks like an excellent update, and a very good idea all round. Everyone buzzing about SS and there has been a lot discussed and many papers given at meetings about her, which now render this book a bit stale. There's no competition so a new version should be very well-received. - Andrew Samuels, Jung list advisor and Professor at the University of Essex