Reflections on Sabina Spielrein’s Life and Intellectual Legacy Reexamined

Inspired by Inna Rozentsvit’s essay, I returned to the life and work of the Russian-Jewish pioneer of psychoanalysis, Sabina Spielrein (originally Shpilrain, 1885–1942). I added some reflections on her biography and intellectual history. Spielrein has been the subject of two fictional films, a documentary, novels, and plays. However, it was not until 2014 that the first English-language biography appeared, attempting to reassess Spielrein’s place in the history of psychoanalysis and to correct the myths surrounding her. John Launer, a London-based family therapist, educator, honorary lifetime consultant physician at the Tavistock Clinic, and prolific medical columnist has written a multifaceted biography of Spielrein, Sex Versus Survival: The Life and Ideas of Sabina Spielrein (2014), as well as the article “Sabina Spielrein: Her life, erasure, rediscovery and recognition as a key psychoanalytic thinker” (in European Judaism, 2022, 55[1], pp. 98-111).