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La destrucción como origen del devenir
This publication anticipated by eight years Freud’s conception of the death instinct.
110 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1912
22 people are currently reading
509 people want to read
About the author
Sabina Spielrein
13 books56 followersSabina Naftulovna Spielrein (Russian: Сабина Нафтуловна Шпильрейн, also transliterated "Shpilrein" or "Shpilreyn") was a Russian physician and one of the first female psychoanalysts. She was in succession an analysand, then student, then colleague of Carl Gustav Jung, a man with whom she also had a romantic relationship. She also met, corresponded, and had a collegial relationship with Sigmund Freud. One of her more famous analysands was the Swiss developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget. She worked as a psychoanalyst and teacher in Switzerland and Russia. Her best known and perhaps most influential published work in the field of psychology is the essay titled "Destruction as the Cause of Coming Into Being".
Born 1885 into a family of Jewish doctors in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Her mother was a dentist, her father an entomologist, who after moving from Warsaw to Rostov became a successful merchant. One of her brothers, Isaac Spielrein, was a Soviet psychologist, a pioneer of labor psychology. Spielrein was married to Pavel Scheftel, a physician of Russian Jewish descent. They had two daughters: Renate, born 1912, and Eva, born 1924.
Before enrolling as a student of medicine in Zürich, Spielrein was admitted in August 1904 to the Burghölzli mental hospital near Zürich, where Carl Jung worked at that time, and remained there until June 1905. While there, she established a deep emotional relationship with Jung who later was her medical dissertation advisor. The historian and psychoanalyst Peter Loewenberg argues that this was a sexual relationship, in breach of professional ethics, and that it "jeopardized his position at the Burghölzli and led to his rupture with Bleuler and his departure from the University of Zurich". Spielrein graduated in 1911, and was later elected a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Her dissertation, “Concerning the Psychological Content of a Case of Schizophrenia,” was the first dissertation written by a woman that was psychoanalytically oriented. It was published in 1911 as the lead paper in the Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse, which was edited by Jung. She continued working with Jung until 1912, and later saw Sigmund Freud in Vienna.
In 1923, Spielrein returned to Soviet Russia and with Vera Schmidt established a kindergarten in Moscow, nicknamed "The White Nursery" by the children (all furniture and walls having been white). The institution was committed to bringing up children as free persons as early as possible. "The White Nursery" was closed down three years later by the authorities under false accusations of sexual perversion with the children (in fact, Stalin actually enrolled his own son, Vasily, into the "White Nursery" under a false name).
Spielrein's husband Pavel perished during Stalin's Great Terror, as did her brother Isaac. She and her two children were killed by a German SS Death Squad, Einsatzgruppe D in 1942 in Zmievskaya Balka, together with another 27,000 victims.
While Spielrein is not often given more than a footnote in the history of the development of psychoanalysis, her conception of the sexual drive as containing both an instinct of destruction and an instinct of transformation, presented to the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1912, in fact anticipates both Freud's "death drive" and Jung's views on "transformation"
Born 1885 into a family of Jewish doctors in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Her mother was a dentist, her father an entomologist, who after moving from Warsaw to Rostov became a successful merchant. One of her brothers, Isaac Spielrein, was a Soviet psychologist, a pioneer of labor psychology. Spielrein was married to Pavel Scheftel, a physician of Russian Jewish descent. They had two daughters: Renate, born 1912, and Eva, born 1924.
Before enrolling as a student of medicine in Zürich, Spielrein was admitted in August 1904 to the Burghölzli mental hospital near Zürich, where Carl Jung worked at that time, and remained there until June 1905. While there, she established a deep emotional relationship with Jung who later was her medical dissertation advisor. The historian and psychoanalyst Peter Loewenberg argues that this was a sexual relationship, in breach of professional ethics, and that it "jeopardized his position at the Burghölzli and led to his rupture with Bleuler and his departure from the University of Zurich". Spielrein graduated in 1911, and was later elected a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Her dissertation, “Concerning the Psychological Content of a Case of Schizophrenia,” was the first dissertation written by a woman that was psychoanalytically oriented. It was published in 1911 as the lead paper in the Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse, which was edited by Jung. She continued working with Jung until 1912, and later saw Sigmund Freud in Vienna.
In 1923, Spielrein returned to Soviet Russia and with Vera Schmidt established a kindergarten in Moscow, nicknamed "The White Nursery" by the children (all furniture and walls having been white). The institution was committed to bringing up children as free persons as early as possible. "The White Nursery" was closed down three years later by the authorities under false accusations of sexual perversion with the children (in fact, Stalin actually enrolled his own son, Vasily, into the "White Nursery" under a false name).
Spielrein's husband Pavel perished during Stalin's Great Terror, as did her brother Isaac. She and her two children were killed by a German SS Death Squad, Einsatzgruppe D in 1942 in Zmievskaya Balka, together with another 27,000 victims.
While Spielrein is not often given more than a footnote in the history of the development of psychoanalysis, her conception of the sexual drive as containing both an instinct of destruction and an instinct of transformation, presented to the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1912, in fact anticipates both Freud's "death drive" and Jung's views on "transformation"
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 27, 2015
An interesting thesis, no doubt. There is certainly a grande raison for the expression la petite morte, after all. The argument is emphatic and persistent and likely enough to infuriate anyone who has never had a crush or had to skip a Psych 101 due to sex.
The entire article is short enough to be read in two, maybe three, sittings; check the general page on this site for url to a free pdf. Also of interest are the biographical details of Spieltrein: she had a thing with Jung and died in the Holocaust. There were apparently at least three films with her as a character . . .
These disparate quotes resonated with me:
The closer we approach our conscious thoughts, the more differentiated our images; the deeper we penetrate the unconscious, the more universal and typical the images. The depth of our psyche knows no 'I' , but only its summation, the 'We'.
Chance determines if a predestined sexual experience is activated in the psyche or if merely the possibility of the experience persists in the psyche.
In every love, one must distinguish between two conceptual orientations: the first — how one loves; the second — how one is loved.
Naturally, the boundary is not so sharply drawn because every human is bisexual.
The procreative act per se leads to self-destruction.
The highest also contains the lowest.
In a psychological sense, both hate and turbulent love may induce equivalent actions. Hate is related to conscious opposition, to the activation of a negative love.
The entire article is short enough to be read in two, maybe three, sittings; check the general page on this site for url to a free pdf. Also of interest are the biographical details of Spieltrein: she had a thing with Jung and died in the Holocaust. There were apparently at least three films with her as a character . . .
These disparate quotes resonated with me:
The closer we approach our conscious thoughts, the more differentiated our images; the deeper we penetrate the unconscious, the more universal and typical the images. The depth of our psyche knows no 'I' , but only its summation, the 'We'.
Chance determines if a predestined sexual experience is activated in the psyche or if merely the possibility of the experience persists in the psyche.
In every love, one must distinguish between two conceptual orientations: the first — how one loves; the second — how one is loved.
Naturally, the boundary is not so sharply drawn because every human is bisexual.
The procreative act per se leads to self-destruction.
The highest also contains the lowest.
In a psychological sense, both hate and turbulent love may induce equivalent actions. Hate is related to conscious opposition, to the activation of a negative love.
February 27, 2022
A primeira vez que li esse livro foi uma tradução para o inglês na fase em que eu estava obcecada pelas pulsões durante a graduação de psicologia e que maravilha ler essa tradução para o português diretamente do alemão, o texto se tornou muito mais saboroso do que da primeira vez que o li. De resto é aquilo mesmo que a gente já sabe, Spielrein faz a ponte entre Nietzsche, Jung e Freud, sem ninguém dar o devido valor na época, Freud relegou a uma nota de rodapé a mulher que fez com que desse uma das maiores viradas dentro de sua teoria.
Mas tudo tem sido sanado e Spielrein está recuperando seu lugar na história, esse livrinho A Destruição como Origem do Devir saiu ano passado pela Editora Artes & Ecos (eles estão com essa coleçãozinha bem bacana, Escrita Psicanalítica), a Editora Blucher também está lançando as Obras Completas da Spielrein, também coordenada pela Renata Cromberg (quase Cronenberg, rá!) que tem feito um excelente trabalho de resgate dela no Brasil.
Mas tudo tem sido sanado e Spielrein está recuperando seu lugar na história, esse livrinho A Destruição como Origem do Devir saiu ano passado pela Editora Artes & Ecos (eles estão com essa coleçãozinha bem bacana, Escrita Psicanalítica), a Editora Blucher também está lançando as Obras Completas da Spielrein, também coordenada pela Renata Cromberg (quase Cronenberg, rá!) que tem feito um excelente trabalho de resgate dela no Brasil.
November 2, 2015
Tendo lido Além do Princípio do Prazer concomitantemente ao texto da Spielrein há de se notar o porque Freud era tão sedutor com as palavras, aqui Spielrein joga os dados para a teoria das pulsões, mas é Freud que a torna degustável.
June 11, 2018
Sabina, in this long essay, discussed the Freudian Death-Drive, and made a very good interpretation and analysis on the issue. Her results were really genuine – to a certain extent, I liked her analysis more than I liked Freud’s!
Sabina, in this long essay, discussed the Freudian Death-Drive, and made a very good interpretation and analysis on the issue. Her results were really genuine – to a certain extent, I liked her analysis more than I liked Freud’s!
August 6, 2024
'Throughout my involvement with sexual problems, one question has especially interested me: Why does this most powerful drive, the reproductive instinct, harbour negative feelings in addition to the inherently anticipated positive feelings?'
I feel very kindly towards Sabina Spielrein, but I'm still trying to figure out if I love this essay, or just her. I found it difficult to differentiate between her life as shown in A Most Dangerous Method and in the letters between her and Jung, and the text by itself. The introduction to the text warms me, as it portrays a psycho-analyst who's daring enough to look inside, but I struggle with the Freudian reasoning throughout.
Spielrein has done her own research on the relation between sex and death, mostly with patients suffering from dementia, but this almost feels as a side-note in the text. I wished for more of Spielreins remarks - as they are fascinating- and less psychoanalytic symbolism, which made the argument quite unconvincing
I feel very kindly towards Sabina Spielrein, but I'm still trying to figure out if I love this essay, or just her. I found it difficult to differentiate between her life as shown in A Most Dangerous Method and in the letters between her and Jung, and the text by itself. The introduction to the text warms me, as it portrays a psycho-analyst who's daring enough to look inside, but I struggle with the Freudian reasoning throughout.
Spielrein has done her own research on the relation between sex and death, mostly with patients suffering from dementia, but this almost feels as a side-note in the text. I wished for more of Spielreins remarks - as they are fascinating- and less psychoanalytic symbolism, which made the argument quite unconvincing
December 30, 2022
"En cada pensamiento expresado, el cual es un retrato de una imagen, establecemos una generalización en la cual las palabras son símbolos que sirven para darle una forma personal a las ideas universalmente humanas y comprensibles; es decir, las impresiones están despersonalizadas."
"En todo amor, uno debe distinguir entre dos orientaciones conceptuales: la primera, cómo se ama; la segunda, cómo se es amado. En la primera, uno es el sujeto y ama al objeto proyectado al exterior; en la segunda, uno se convierte en el amado y ama al yo como objeto."
"En todo amor, uno debe distinguir entre dos orientaciones conceptuales: la primera, cómo se ama; la segunda, cómo se es amado. En la primera, uno es el sujeto y ama al objeto proyectado al exterior; en la segunda, uno se convierte en el amado y ama al yo como objeto."
March 7, 2024
kind of goofy at times but I liked it
February 18, 2023
DEVENIR EN "NOSOTROS" PARA LOGRAR SER COMPRENDIDOS.
Ha sido un tanto (mucho) olvidada la importancia de Sabina Spielrein para el psicoanálisis, y la publicación de este texto me parece una aproximación a hacerle justicia a una de las pioneras de este campo de estudio. Sabina fue la primera que desarrolló en una tesis (1911) el naciente concepto (1908, Bleuler) de "esquizofrenia". Fue analista de Jean Piaget durante ocho meses, y mientras ella dirigió la Detski Dom (Guardería Blanca) tuvo a a su cargo a Vigotsky y a Luria, pilares de la psicología soviética y la neuropsicología, respectivamente.
Aunque mucho de lo que se refería de Sabina era con respecto a su relación con Jung, lo cierto es que sus aportaciones van más allá. Si bien se infiere la influencia (teórica) que recibió del analista suizo del inconsciente colectivo, y en las concepciones diádicas de los fenómenos psíquicos, aunque en el dominio en que ella las aplica, es decir, el instinto de reproducción, va más allá de los planteamiento junguianos y, de hecho, se adelanta a los instintos de vida y de muerte de los que Freud hablaría en "Más allá del principio del placer", texto que abriría paso a su segunda tópica.
En "La destrucción como origen del devenir", Spielrein establece que al instinto de reproducción le han sido asociados sentimientos tanto positivos como negativos. Dicha oposición es rastreada por la autora, como la mayoría de los psicoanalistas, desde la infancia. A este respecto, afirma que el inconsciente adulto reproduce las imágenes de la infancia, incluidas las de afectividad y placer, son "alegorías [...] que buscan analogías en el presente". Luego, está el problema sobre si la totalidad de nuestra vida psíquica está en el yo, ante lo que Sabina propone que, de hecho, el yo es más bien la suma de un "nosotros", el ego se subordina a objetos análogos, cuya analogía se construye a partir de las imágenes infantiles pero al final debe superarlas.
Spilerein interpreta la enfermedad como una pugna entre las tendencias antagónicas del psiquismo personal y del colectivo. Para superar esa dicotomía, debe transformar su yo en "nosotros", a manera de encontrar un objeto, lo cual sólo puede hacer por la vía de la negación de ese yo individual, de su destrucción que sea el devenir para el psiquismo colectivo: "La psiquis personal únicamente puede desear sensaciones placenteras, pero la psiquis colectiva nos enseña qué deseamos, cuáles son las afectividades positivas o negativas".
La psiquis colectiva niega el yo y lo recrea, los destruye y lo deviene y es, entonces, la que permite la elaboración de la analogía para poder ser comprendido por otros, misma que logra diferenciarse de los contenidos antiguos (infantiles), y de esta tendencia a la diferenciación, sobreviene la de asimilación, transformando la experiencia personal en colectiva.
Una cita sumaria del texto de Sabina Spielrein podría ser esta: "Ningún cambio puede existir sin la destrucción de la condición anterior". Y cambiamos para poder ser comprendidos, para transitar de un "yo" a un "nosotros".
Ha sido un tanto (mucho) olvidada la importancia de Sabina Spielrein para el psicoanálisis, y la publicación de este texto me parece una aproximación a hacerle justicia a una de las pioneras de este campo de estudio. Sabina fue la primera que desarrolló en una tesis (1911) el naciente concepto (1908, Bleuler) de "esquizofrenia". Fue analista de Jean Piaget durante ocho meses, y mientras ella dirigió la Detski Dom (Guardería Blanca) tuvo a a su cargo a Vigotsky y a Luria, pilares de la psicología soviética y la neuropsicología, respectivamente.
Aunque mucho de lo que se refería de Sabina era con respecto a su relación con Jung, lo cierto es que sus aportaciones van más allá. Si bien se infiere la influencia (teórica) que recibió del analista suizo del inconsciente colectivo, y en las concepciones diádicas de los fenómenos psíquicos, aunque en el dominio en que ella las aplica, es decir, el instinto de reproducción, va más allá de los planteamiento junguianos y, de hecho, se adelanta a los instintos de vida y de muerte de los que Freud hablaría en "Más allá del principio del placer", texto que abriría paso a su segunda tópica.
En "La destrucción como origen del devenir", Spielrein establece que al instinto de reproducción le han sido asociados sentimientos tanto positivos como negativos. Dicha oposición es rastreada por la autora, como la mayoría de los psicoanalistas, desde la infancia. A este respecto, afirma que el inconsciente adulto reproduce las imágenes de la infancia, incluidas las de afectividad y placer, son "alegorías [...] que buscan analogías en el presente". Luego, está el problema sobre si la totalidad de nuestra vida psíquica está en el yo, ante lo que Sabina propone que, de hecho, el yo es más bien la suma de un "nosotros", el ego se subordina a objetos análogos, cuya analogía se construye a partir de las imágenes infantiles pero al final debe superarlas.
Spilerein interpreta la enfermedad como una pugna entre las tendencias antagónicas del psiquismo personal y del colectivo. Para superar esa dicotomía, debe transformar su yo en "nosotros", a manera de encontrar un objeto, lo cual sólo puede hacer por la vía de la negación de ese yo individual, de su destrucción que sea el devenir para el psiquismo colectivo: "La psiquis personal únicamente puede desear sensaciones placenteras, pero la psiquis colectiva nos enseña qué deseamos, cuáles son las afectividades positivas o negativas".
La psiquis colectiva niega el yo y lo recrea, los destruye y lo deviene y es, entonces, la que permite la elaboración de la analogía para poder ser comprendido por otros, misma que logra diferenciarse de los contenidos antiguos (infantiles), y de esta tendencia a la diferenciación, sobreviene la de asimilación, transformando la experiencia personal en colectiva.
Una cita sumaria del texto de Sabina Spielrein podría ser esta: "Ningún cambio puede existir sin la destrucción de la condición anterior". Y cambiamos para poder ser comprendidos, para transitar de un "yo" a un "nosotros".
August 24, 2017
Достаточно интересно, но сложно читать, с первого раза все не прочитать и не понять, требуется время и перечитывание, очень интересное рассмотрение Я и родовой души, постоянная борьба становления и разрушение, на примерах Ницше и древней мифологии.
July 27, 2022
Un ensayo que habla sobre la relación del eros y tanatos. Muy interesante, quizá la parte más accesible sea el apartado final, dónde se explica la tesis de la autora con ejemplos vinculados a la mitología y literatura.
April 2, 2024
Read this for Lacan club a few months ago ! I didn't realise Mutter Ja Mama Speilrein was on GoodReads. It was kind of a flop, but contained some very generative and important concepts !
December 26, 2024
Un instinto de destrucción y otro del devenir.
October 14, 2025
Eros and Thanatos: Big Love dead. Well, I mean OK
July 16, 2025
Jung: Borderline, it's got to be borderline. Her archetypes are all off. It's probably a personality thing. That's at least my professional opinion.
Freud: That or hysteria?
Jung: Yep there's no getting through to her.
Freud: ...Nope.
*This fictional reenactment is sponsored in part by Ernest Hemingway and McDonalds*
Freud: That or hysteria?
Jung: Yep there's no getting through to her.
Freud: ...Nope.
*This fictional reenactment is sponsored in part by Ernest Hemingway and McDonalds*
June 19, 2022
“Destruction as the Cause of Being” by Sabina Spielrein. It is like I can see the code that governs the matrix after reading Freud, Jung and Sabina’s essay. In this essay, she explains why conservative Catholics/evangelicals are so hung up on sex, their hate comes from their fear of sex. And of course, sex and death go together, which explains the left, sex and death, abortion, sex, homosexuality, drugs and euthanasia. Now I am terrified after reading this essay.
March 30, 2017
genial!!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews