Sabina Spielrein
November 7, 1885: Born in Rostov-on-Don, Russian Empire to Eva Lublinskaya and Nikolai Spielrein. Her family was wealthy and she was the eldest of five children. As a young girl she experienced physical abuse from her parents, and some believe she was sexually abused as a child.
1900: After the death of her only sister, Emilia, Sabina begins to suffer from more pronounced mental health issues. She was originally treated for “hysteria” in a Swiss Sanitorium.
August 1904: Is admitted to the Burghölzli Hospital in Zürich, Switzerland where she is treated by Carl Jung.
October 1904: Improves rapidly, applies to medical school, and begins assisting Jung.
1905 - 1911: Attends medical school at the University of Zürich where her main focus was psychiatry. She studied psychoanalysis with Jung and Eugen Bleuler (director of the Burghölzli Hospital), and spent time with Freud.
1911: Graduates with her PhD and publishes her dissertation “On the Psychological Content of a Case of Schizophrenia.” The dissertation is possibly the first psychoanalytical doctoral thesis, and is definitely the first written by a woman.
November 29, 1911: Presents her “On Transformation” lecture at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society Conference. This is the first time that she refers to her death instinct hypothesis.
1912: Marries Pavel Nahumovitch Sheftel with whom she has two daughters, Renata (born in 1913) and Eva (born in 1926). The couple moves to Berlin and Spielrein continues to publish scientific papers.
1915: Moves to Geneva, Switzerland with Renata at the beginning of World War I. Pavel joins a military regiment in Kiev and the two are separated for about a decade.
Sabina (front left) with her family.
Sabina (left) with her mother and sister.
1920: Attends the sixth congress of the International Psychoanalytical Association in The Hague and gives a talk about the origins of childhood language. Spielrein announces that she will work at the Rousseau Institute, which focused on child development, in Geneva. She works there for three years alongside distinguished psychologists including Jean Piaget.
1923: Moves to Moscow, Russia where she was appointed as the chair in child psychology at First Moscow University. She also worked at the Moscow Psychoanalytic Institute and supervised teachers at the “Detski Dom” Psychoanalytic Orphanage-Library.
1924: Returns to Rostov and is reunited with Pavel. Continues her work as a pediatrician and her research.
1936: Death of Pavel.
1937 & 1938: Arrest and death of brothers Jan and Emil Spielrein during the Great Purge.
August 1942: Death of Sabina, Renata, and Eva Spielrein in Rostov at the hand of the Nazis.