Album Notes

In this collection of poems about Sabina Spielrein, I try simply to portray the woman I met through my research. I don't attempt to verify statements made by her in the fragments of her diaries used in researching this series. Nor do I attempt to offer proof that Sabina Spielrein authored the theories she claims to have (at the very least) assisted in authoring. My purpose in tackling this project is to personally experience what is known about one of the first women physicians and psychoanalysts. It is my intent to personify the woman I encountered during 5 years of research in which I became as obsessed with her as she had been obsessed with Jung, the man who was her analyst and probably her lover.

Using excerpts from Sabina’s diaries; correspondence with Freud; surviving portions of correspondence from Carl Jung and accounts authored by both Freud and Jung, I found my personal vision of Sabina. This is my attempt to reanimate a woman whose memory was all but erased from history. I do not intend to claim greatness for her, although I believe she deserves it. I do not intend to attack Jung or Freud, although I believe Jung at least would be sorely pressed to explain himself today.

What I intend with this collection is to respond to a private imperative – a kind of compulsion if you will – to bring some light to the story of a life that ran its course in a very different manner than that of most women of Sabina’s time and place in history. For me, Sabina is one of the patterns women have lost. Her disappearance cost us as much as Sappho's erasure did. Whenever ground-breaking women are muted or disappear from history, possibilities fade for those of us who follow behind them.

Pamela Moore Dionne

The Prelude/Postlude was composed while waiting for a haircut. 2-9 were composed on airline flights to and from Los Angeles. 10-17 were composed on flights to and from San Antonio.



Jim Knodle