Volume 29, Number 8 · May 13, 1982
A Fine Romance
By D.M. Thomas
A Secret Symmetry: Sabina Spielrein between Jung and Freud
by Aldo Carotenuto, translated by Arno Pomerans, by John Shepley, by Krishna Winston
Pantheon, 250 pp., $16.95
Sabina Spielrein was the daughter of a well-to-do Jewish family from Rostovon-Don in Russia. Her grandfather and great-grandfather had been rabbis. From early childhood, her rich imagination strained both to the heights and to the depths: in Goethe's words (quoted by Freud as applicable to sexuality), 'from Heaven, across the world, to Hell.' She thought of herself as a goddess, in possession of a great strength that would allow her to achieve anything she wanted. She also became obsessed with feces, once sitting on her heels in a way which hampered defecation for two weeks. By the age of eighteen she could no longer look at anyone without imagining that they were defecating. Fits of depression alternated with hysterical outbursts.
Review, 2220 words
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