The problem with sex

Abstract

It is November 29, 1911. In a hired lecture hall, the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society is holding its regular weekly meeting. As usual, Professor Freud is in the chair. He has a great deal on his mind. His movement is splitting into factions. Last month, he had to expel a group of dissidents—the followers of Alfred Adler—for placing too much emphasis on the role of biology in mental illness. The previous day, one of the most eminent psychiatrists in Europe, Eugen Bleuler, sent him a resignation letter, arguing that dogmas and expulsions were more appropriate for a cult or a political party than the advancement of science. Storm clouds are gathering too in Freud's relationship with his own chief disciple, Carl Jung. Their disagreement is not about biology, but about the place of religion and mythology in understanding mental illness. Things are not looking good, and possibly the movement may not survive. The speaker that evening, a young Russian Jewish woman, is a new member and has only just qualified as a doctor. Probably, Freud has invited her to speak in order to try to build bridges with Jung … The young woman in question, Sabina Speilrein, had an unusually close connection with Jung, being in succession his patient, research assistant and lover. When she was a teenager, she appears to have had a severe bereavement reaction to the death of her only sister from typhoid. This included depression, hysterical behaviour and manic rages. Her parents sent her from Rostov-on-Don to Switzerland, where she saw several psychiatrists, ending up in the care of Jung. Using a mixture of word association techniques and rudimentary psychoanalysis, Jung elicited her private obsessions with beatings and masturbation. After …