Jean Piaget's experiences on the couch: some clues to a mystery

This paper is an attempt to reconstruct the historical, institutional, and personal circumstances leading to and surrounding Jean Piaget's psychoanalysis with Sabina Spielrein. It appears that the young Piaget's interest in psychoanalysis largely emanated from his long-standing problems with his mother. It is suggested that Piaget's lifelong tendency to intellectualise his own emotional experiences may relate to the near omission of affective factors in his psychological theories.