Social Evolution between Spielrein, Freud, and Jung

Abstract: Apart from her much-discussed role in the personal and professional relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, Sabina Spielrein is widely known for her 1912 paper, “Destruction as the Cause of Becoming,” in which she posits the existence of an instinct of destruction, seen by many as a precursor of Freud’s death drive. Despite recent attempts to assess the differences between Spielrein’s, Jung’s, and Freud’s drive theories, few scholars have noted that these psychoanalysts’ conceptions of drives were inherently related to their political views, specifically to their perception of social and evolutional progress. A common universal narrative that appears in the work of all three analysts is the view that human society develops from egoism to altruism. While, in Jung’s work, this teleology also led to the association between non-industrial societies and a lower degree of development, Spielrein was more careful about the appropriation of such socio-evolutional hierarchies. This paper will explore not only her personal reasons for this caution, but also Spielrein’s, Freud’s, and Jung’s differing perception of the social role of community and individuality.