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To appreciate fully the magnitude of Sabina Spielrein's struggle to overcome personal disability and become one of the first psycho-analysts, a brief survey of her life is necessary. Aldo Carotenuto has published her diary, letters, and relevant biographical material (Carotenuto 1982). Spielrein was born in Russia, Rostov-on-Don, in 1885. In August 1904, she was admitted to the Burghölzli Hospital, the psychiatric hospital of the University of Zurich. C. G. Jung was her physician and diagnosed her disturbance as an hysterical psychosis. He described her illness at a psychiatric meeting in Amsterdam in 1907 and later published the report in ‘The Freudian theory of hysteria’ (Jung 1908). Released from the Burghölzli in June 1905, Spielrein entered medical school at the University of Zurich and continued analysis with Jung. Strong transference-countertransference developed and, from 1908 to 1910(11), doctor and patient became embroiled in a painful love affair. Both Jung and Spielrein wrote to Freud concerning their relationship, but Freud was unable to aid in the problem's resolution. Jung eventually broke off the relationship and Spielrein, deeply wounded, continued to work and received her medical degree in 1911. She published her medical thesis in 1911 and her first theoretical paper in 1912. In 1912, she joined Freud's psychoanalytic group in Vienna, married, and, in the following year, bore a daughter, Renate. Spielrein continued to contribute articles to psychoanalytic journals and in 1923 returned to Russia where she opened a home for infants and children. Although Carotenuto suggested that she became the victim of a Stalinist purge, a more recent report (Ljunggrien 1983)