Sabina Spielrein’s Coming Into Being: A Way Paved by Destruction

Abstract

The significance of Spielrein’s ‘destruction thesis’, as presented in her seminal paper, “Destruction as a Cause of Coming Into Being” (1994/1912), which includes: the element of a destructive component residing within sexuality; the resulting conflict arising between two fundamental biological drives; that of self-preservation and species-preservation, and the psychological consequences of the aforementioned conflict and its potential for paving the way for personal transformation in choosing between ‘sex vs survival’, is discussed with reference to sexuality, personal identity, notions of loss, and psychotherapy. Although Freud and Jung, as discussed here as well, were initially reluctant in accepting the biological considerations Spielrein was proposing for psychoanalysis, both overcame that reluctance, and her contributions to Freud’s death instinct, Jung’s concept of the anima, an understanding of transference and counter-transference, have come to be acknowledged and thus she is considered to be an early pioneer in the development of psychoanalysis.