Sabine Richebächer

At the start of the 20th century, Switzerland was one of the few places where women could study at university level. Nearly a third of all university students were women, a record in Europe. Many of these enterprising women were foreigners, most were Russian Jews, nicknamed "little Cossack horses".

One of those fillies was Sabina Spielrein, the daughter of a rich agri-merchant from Rostow on the Don. Growing up in a both very pushy and very lenient family environment led to her developing a rather unstable sado-masochistic personality. One of her tantrums during a European summer vacation led the family to seek medical help in Zurich. Her doctor was called C.G. Jung. And the rest is history.

Jung managed both to transform his patient into a productive member of society and to abuse his position by starting an affair with this young and unstable girl which created a lifelong negative dependency. Professionally, she thrived - as far as that was possible in her position as a foreigner and a woman: She studied medicine and became one of the first child psychologists. Thus she gravitated around the important cities of early psychology: Zurich, Geneva, Berlin and Vienna. The 20th century had a violent impact on her and her family. The First World War pushed her out of Germany. Her brothers (successful university professors) were murdered by one of Stalin's purges. She herself was murdered by the Nazis after they had conquered Rostow. Spielrein foolishly declined to escape the besieged city with fake Armenian passports. She continued to believe in the goodness of the Germans, even though she had been badly burned in her relationship with the Teutonic-friendly Jung. The murder of the Jews of Rostow is very movingly told, in a biography of many highlights. Most of her and her family's personal belongings perished in WWII. Only the discovery of a suitcase with her diaries in Geneva allowed her rescue from obscurity, of shining some light on a figure besides the giants of early psychology.

Highly recommended both for its early 20th century period flair as well as a great read about a person who out of the shadow cast new light on well known persons.… (altro)