Provides information on Spielreins' Drive Conflict Theory, transference, anima, Breuer, Anna O., William James, the role of symbolism in dreams, Freud's project, Spielrein's Destruction Paper, the two principle instincts, the principle of constancy, Spielrein's 4 biological facts, and Freud's opini...
“Coming Into Being” Study Guide
Introduction [pg. 1 - 7]
1. Name one scholar and what they had to say about Spielrein. [pg. 1 & 2]
One historian of psychoanalysis reminded us, “in the written history of psychoanalysis we look
in vain for Sabina Spielrein” (Richebächer)
She seems to have “vanished” from the psychoanalytic literature (Launer)
Bruno Bettelheim noted in regard to Spielrein; he said she was “one of the great pioneers of
psychoanalysis”
Appignanesi and Forrester remark that Spielrein was “the first woman analyst to have a
significant theoretical impact on psychoanalysis.”
2. Transference [pg. 2]
By examining her theoretical insights and her contributions to important concepts such as
Freud’s death instinct, transference/countertransference, and Jung’s concept of the anima
o This book explores the method that these three principal figures developed and utilized
in the early days of analytic therapy as a treatment technique for mental illness
Transference: “Feelings a patient has for the psychoanalyst that are displacements from
[significant others in] the patient’s past”. Also, countertransference: “Feelings the analyst has
for the patient that are displacements from the analyst’s past.”
3. Anima [pg. 3]
Anima: “The archetype of the ‘feminine’ aspects of men.”
4. Spielrein’s Drive Conflict Theory [pg. 4]
It has been suggested that “Freud and Jung rejected Sabina Spielrein’s theory in its entirety”
(Launer)
She postulated an inevitable conflict between 2 drives: on the one hand, the drive to self-
preservation, which protected the individual’s personal survival; and the species-reproduction
drive on the other, which pressed for continuance of the species through procreative acts
As the aim of the species-preservation drive asserted itself, it came into conflict with the self-
preservation drive; for as the former pressed for expression through the act of procreation, the
individual was required to sacrifice his or her identity to bring about new life
According to Spielrein, reproduction was both destructive and creative, it was destructive of the
individual’s identity but creative for the continuance of the species
As Spielrein said of these 2 competing drives: “No change can take place without destruction of
the former [identity] condition”
While reproduction created a new generation, it also destroyed the original identity of both the
male & female
The interweaving of the idea of sacrifice, compromising both love & death (destruction),
implied that nothing new can come into being without destruction of the old order. “The
individual must strongly hunger for this new creation in order to place its own destruction in
creation’s service.” In other words, reproduction predominated over survival, since the singular
aims of the individual did not always harmonize with the collective aims of reproduction. As
, PSYC2230: “Coming Into Being”
Spielrein said: “We see that the collective desires living within us do not correspond to personal
desires”
This principle, implied in Spielrein’s conceptualization of the reproductive drive, forms the basis
of modern evolutionary theory; as some evolutionary psychologists and biologists have
suggested, we devote our energy not to keeping our own individual identity alive, but to
transferring whatever we can to succeeding generations
She influenced Jung and Freud’s thinking about the death instinct, sadism and masochism,
Jung’s concept of the anima, and the conflicting and ambivalent feelings that arise in the sexual
domain: feelings of desire, anxiety, and disgust
The reproductive drive “consist[s] of two psychologically antagonistic components, a
destructive drive as well as a drive for coming into being”
o Dualistic conception of human nature
Chapter 1: Background to A (Most) Dangerous Method [pg. 8 - 23]
1. What did William James have to say about Freud? [pg. 10 & 14]
“A most dangerous method.” This phrase was most likely borrowed from the American
psychologist and philosopher William James, who employed it in a latter written on September
28th, 1909 to his friend and fellow psychologist, Theodore Flournoy.
o James had recently met Freud and Jung in September of 1909 at Clark University in
Worcester, Massachusetts, and he shared his impressions of that meeting with Flournoy
William James’ phrase “a most dangerous method” reveals the skepticism that James felt
regarding Freud’s analysis of his patients’ clinical material in the context of psychoanalytic
psychotherapy. Freud’s single-minded interpretation of clinical material, such as symptoms,
dreams, defenses, slips of speech, and forgetfulness, as symbolic of deeper, unconscious
psychological processes made James uneasy.
2. Who is “Breuer”? [pg. 12 & 13]
In the Clark lectures, Freud paid homage to his former colleague, Josef Breuer (1842-1925)
(they collaborated on the first treatise devoted to psychoanalytic theory and method, Studies
on Hysteria, published in 1895), senior author of Studies on Hysteria, by acknowledging that he
and Freud jointly published the work in 1895
“If it is a merit to have brought psycho-analysis into being, that merit is not mine. I had no share
in its earliest beginnings. I was a student working for my final examinations at the time when
another Viennese physician, Dr. Josef Breuer…in1880…made us of this procedure on a girl who
was suffering from hysteria.” -Freud
3. Who is “Anna O.”? [pg. 13]
^^ The patient suffering from hysteria was the famous “Anna O.”
The importance of her case was recognized by both Breuer and Freud, and they included it in
their 1895 book. For the record, it was Anna O. who brought the “talking cure” to Breuer’s
attention, calling it “chimney sweeping” during their path-breaking therapeutic encounter of
the early 1880s
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