ABSTRACT
It has been suggested that Spielrein’s full story was not only forgotten, but actively (though unconsciously) repressed as the figure who represented a trauma buried in the early history of psychoanalysis. Until recently, her story was more associated with her early treatment for hysteria and her relationship with Jung, or her role in attempting to mediate between Jung and Freud. Her contributions as a scholar–clinician and her influence and/or anticipation of the work of many better-known theorists – including Freud, Jung, Piaget, and Vygotsky – have been subsumed under the cloud of sensationalism and scandal. Spielrein stands as both an important and tragic figure – misunderstood or underestimated by her fellow analysts (including Jung and Freud), often erased in the annals of psychoanalytic history, and finally murdered in the Holocaust. Her life and works deserve a serious critical reclamation, as the chapters in this volume – including twelve new English translations of Spielrein’s works – attest. This offering joins the growing field of scholarship on Spielrein’s distinctive and significant theoretical innovations at the foundations of psychoanalysis and serves as a further – and hopefully interim – contribution toward the eventual goal of a critical edition of Spielrein’s complete works in English.
