Editorial

This compilation of papers on Sabina Spielrein's treatment by C. G. Jung at the Burghölzli Hospital in Zürich reflects over five years of research and detective work. In 1995 the editors learned about the publication a year earlier of a paper by Dr Bernard Minder on Jung's treatment of Spielrein that incorporated the hospital records in the Swiss journal, Luzifer-Amor. We wrote to Dr Minder requesting information on obtaining permission to publish the records in English translation. This was the start of several years of research and waiting while questions about copyright and ownership of the records could be sorted out. We were assisted initially by Sophie Slaata, who was acting at the time as the legal representative for the Spielrein estate, and who informed us about other unpublished material written by Sabina Spielrein. Prior to her return to Moscow, Spielrein left a cache of letters and papers in the safekeeping of a psychologist colleague in Geneva, Edouard Claparède. Claparède's papers, containing Spielrein's letters and manuscripts, were subsequently inherited by his nephew, the Genevan neurologist Georges de Morsier. This material has remained in the de Morsier family archives and is now in the process of being catalogued by the Archives Institut Rousseau in Geneva.

The search to gain permission to publish the hospital records in English took Coline Covington to Rostov-on-Don, Sabina Spielrein's birthplace, where she participated in the Second Sabina Spielrein Memorial Conference in May 1997 and met Spielrein's niece, Meniche Shpilrain. While Meniche Shpilrain was in favour of the publication of the records, we nevertheless had to wait for two years while other questions relating to the Sabina Spielrein estate were being addressed. Sadly, Meniche Shpilrain suffered a severe stroke during this time and the business of the estate was passed on to her younger cousin, Evald Shpilrain. Coline met with Evald Shpilrain twice during this time, once in London and o