Sabina and Me: How Thinking About Sabina Spielrein Accompanied Me Through The Early Pandemic

Abstract

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic ushered in novel life circumstances of destruction and chaos. Couples and families struggled with isolation, fear, lack of human contact, and absence of resources, such as school and church. In 1911, Sabina Spielrein, an early psychoanalyst, wrote the paper "Death as the cause of becoming" in which she argued that creativity arises from the destruction of previously viable entities coming together in a newly formed creation. During this period of pandemic quarantine, the author, a couple and family therapist, turned to Sabina Spielrein, colleagues, nature, and writing to think about the isolation, fear, and destruction confronting her, her patients, and the world at large. In this process, the author found theory, memory, and fellow travellers to join her in the use of these ideas to confront the challenges of life during the pandemic.