C.G. Jung Society, Seattle

Tom Kelly, M.S.W.

Sabina Spielrein—Enigmatic Muse or Delusional Victim?

Film Viewing: Friday, November 12, 2004, 7 to 9:30 p.m., check in at 6:30 p.m.
Henry Art Gallery Auditorium, UW Campus, 15th Ave. NE and NE 41st St., Seattle (Directions)
$15 members, $20 nonmembers
CEUs available

Workshop: Saturday, November 13, 2004, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Center for Urban Horticulture, UW, 3501 NE 41st St., Seattle (Directions and map)
$30 members, $40 nonmembers, $25 student/senior members, $35 student/senior nonmembers
CEUs available

• To learn about preregistering for the workshop, see Preregistration Policy and Form.
• Cosponsored by Luminous Psyche (part of COR Northwest Family Development Center).
• Membership discount for this event only applies to both COR and Jung Society members.
• Note updates to this event as of Sept. 22: Film to be viewed on Friday, duration of both events, and cost for Saturday event.

Sabina Spielrein was a pioneering figure in the psychoanalytic movement at the beginning of the last century about whom, until recently, relatively little was known. As a result of the discovery of a suitcase containing letters exchanged between Sabina Spielrein and C.G. Jung, much information about this woman and her contribution to the field has come to light. On Friday evening, we will have the opportunity to view a recent film on the life of Sabina Spielrein: Soul Keeper by the Italian director, Robert Faenza. The film presents the life of this extraordinary woman, her contribution to the psychoanalytic movement from the beginning, and her influence on two of its major figures and founding fathers, Freud and Jung.

On Saturday, we will delve further into and explore the impact of this woman on the development and evolution of the analytic movement and, more specifically, on Jung’s ideas concerning transference and counter-transference. We will reflect together on the extent to which Sabina Spielrein’s life and ultimate fate is symbolic of the treatment of the feminine in the world of analytical psychology and psychoanalysis. In addition, we will explore the legacy in terms of ethics that the field of psychoanalysis has been left with as a result.

We all know that the conditions at the start of an individual’s life will have a huge impact on that person’s physical and psychic development throughout life. As in the life of an individual, the beginning of any movement too has a crucial influence on its ultimate evolution and direction. What are some of the lasting effects that can still be felt amongst Jungian Analysts today as a result of the relationship between Jung and Sabina Spielrein? What shadow aspects of current analytical psychology might be traced to this part of its past? What can be learned from this part of our history in order to move forward in a more sensitive, more empathic and more conscious manner in our daily work? These are some of the issues we will examine together and have an opportunity to discuss at length in the workshop on Saturday.

Tom Kelly, M.S.W., completed his training as a Jungian Analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich in 1986. He is past president of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, serves on the editorial board of the New York Institute Journal of Jungian Theory and Practice and is currently Honorary Secretary of the International Association for Analytical Psychology. Tom Kelly lives and has a practice in Montreal, Canada.

Updated: 23 September 2004

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