The turbulent relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud is well known. But the story of Sabina Spielrein — Jung's patient, protege, and lover — was nearly lost to history. Sabina introduced him to an inner world of archetype and shadow that became the foundation of Jungian psychology. She later brought Jung and Freud together and, in many ways, surpassed them as a pioneering feminist psychoanalyst who was the hero of her own story. "In the dawn of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud was always on the alert for new disciples, especially those who would expand acceptance of his controversial theories. One such early convert was the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, who had had some success with 'the talking cure' with a young patient named Sabina Spielrein, with whom Jung may or may not have had an affair but who certainly became intricately involved with both men. The twisted tale of this triangle involving the two titans of psychoanalysis, once so close and later so implacably estranged, and an obscure Russian woman, who pursued a career of her own as an analyst, was virtually unknown until a cache of documents was discovered in Geneva in 1977 … [Holtzman's dramatization is] intriguing and captivating." —Wilborn Hampton, The New York Times "Ambitious, intelligent … Holtzman offers poetic insights into ways that [Freud and Jung's] theories augured the behavior that would allow them to betray [Sabina] … The drama recreates the analytic process beautifully." —The New Yorker "Sigmund Freud and Karl Jung … Holtzman was right to name his psychodrama about these giant figures from the history of psychology for the woman who is said to have brought them together. [She is] the play's fascinating pivot [so] that the two geniuses … are like suitors who've managed to get their names on the belle of the ball's dance card … We first meet her as a crazed teenager who flaps at the cage of her troubled mind like a frightened, trapped bird. She emerges from her immensely watchable, filled with Wagnerian sturm and drang psychoanalysis as a brilliant young woman eager for life. By the time she meets Freud she is an irresistibly charming and obviously brilliant medical student … engrossing drama … emotionaly charged and often amusing." —Elyse Sommer, Curtain Up
