Psychological Study of Schizophrenia by S. N. Spielrein in the Light of Disciplinary Crisis of Psychiatry in the Beginning of the XX Century

Abstract

The article considers the formation of innovative psychological method of schizophrenia research performed by S. Spielrein in her dissertation “On the psychological content of a single case of schizophrenia” (1911). The authors display that contrary to popular view on S. Spielrein as a devoted disciple of K. G. Jung in fact in her study of the case of schizophrenia she had developed an original method that synthesized the most promising psychiatric approaches of that time. On the basis of Burgholzli archival documents research the authors claim that it is exclusively due to E. Bleuler Freud’s method had been welcomed
in the “big” psychiatry so that S. Spielrein had a chance to get to know it and to apply to her study. The authors focus on the neo-Kantian component of Spielrein’s “psychological” method. Neo-Kantian descriptive research methods inspired the other prominent
psychiatrist of XX century – Karl Jaspers. In 1909 S. Spielrein was going to enroll in the University of Heidelberg, and could had become a pupil of W. Windelband or a follower of K. Jaspers in psychiatry, but she had chosen to return to Burgholzli and to psychoanalysis.
The authors display that S. Spielrein had developed in her dissertation a
method that combined a phenomenological approach to the subjective symptoms (neo-Kantians & Jaspers) with the “presumption of meaningfulness” of delirious speech (Bleuler & Freud). What is more, she had fully realizes in her case study a humanistic potential of both approaches.