Language is Mother

Abstract: The article examines Sabina Spielrein’s model of the development of language and thought formulated in 1920–1931, in comparison with the concepts of écriture féminine first introduced in the mid-1970s. Spielrein’s model comprises three stages: autistic, magical, and social. In her positioning of the mother as a central, active figure in the process of creation and acquisition of all language—from the preverbal language to the symbolic one intended for communication with fellow human beings—Spielrein seems to foretell the “second wave” feminist critique of male-centered Freudo-Lacanian thinking about language development. Post-structuralist thinkers and critics, Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray, and Julia Kristeva, each in their own way, advocated for feminine agency and creativity.