1917
306A
Allenstein
2 January 1917
Dear Professor,
I received your letter and the 2nd volume of the Lectures over a week ago and today want to thank you sincerely for both since I have just finished reading the book. I think it will be very useful for our interests, partly because it is so elementary and yet contains everything essential, and partly because, as all historical and theoretical material has been left out, it makes far fewer demands on the reader than the earlier book on the dream. Furthermore, the perfect depiction and the certainty and serenity of the work are sure to make an impression—as soon as general interest turns back to science again. I spent a number of pleasant hours with this book, and my wife is reading it now. Otherwise, there is little stimulation in this small town. That is why I have used the holidays for avid reading, and the only dissatisfaction is that the 3rd volume is not yet out. Meanwhile, the new issue of the Zeitschrift has arrived, and I see myself in print again after more than two years. Incidentally, what is to happen to the other paper?1 If only one knew that there would be peace soon and that we could publish our Jahrbuch again, I should like to reserve it for that. But since the future is so uncertain, it would be best if I asked you to publish it sometime when the Zeitschrift is short of contributions.
I should be glad to hear that you have good news of all your combatants, and that all of you at home are well too. I can say the same of us.
Not much new to report scientifically. Among my patients I have had two obsessional neuroses; without thorough analysis, both strikingly confirmed your views and those of Jones. They may be useful material later on.
Yesterday I chanced to come across a dream in Till Eulenspiegel2 that is told by the three-year-old Till and has, as far as I know, not yet been mentioned in our literature. You might publish it under the brief communications in the Zeitschrift with reference to undisguised wish-fulfilment of childhood dreams. It goes as follows: “One morning Till told his father what he had dreamt the previous night. ‘Father', he said, ‘last night I saw a cake in my dream'. ‘That is a good omen, my son', Father Klaus replied. ‘Give me a penny, and I will explain the dream to you.' ‘Father', answered Till, ‘if I had a penny, I would not have only dreamt of cake.'”
More sometime soon! For today, the most cordial greetings to you all, also from my wife!
Yours,
Karl Abraham
1. Abraham, 1917[54], which eventually appeared in the Zeitschrift.
2. German mediaeval stories about a legendary rogue, widely circulated in popular editions. A publication by Abraham or Freud could not be found.
307F
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
13 January 1917
Dear Friend,
My warm thanks for your letter! The most important thing is that you are well and are able to enjoy your family. In such circumstances the value of a good wife, in itself inestimable, is immeasurably increased. I can well imagine that the small town offers you nothing but work, work, and not the kind of work that one desires. From another letter that arrived at the same time as yours I gather that Liebermann is again with you.
Your second, hardly less splendid paper is to appear in Number 4 of the Zeitschrift. Number 3 is already at the printer's, with a paper by me,1 which I shall send you in proof as soon as the block that goes with it is ready. The situation with regard to the Jahrbuch is uncertain, as you know. Deuticke seems to be offended at the Lectures being published by Heller,2 though I warned him a long time ago that his repeated rejections of our periodicals would ultimately have that consequence.
I have asked Karger to send the fifth edition of Everyday Life straight to you. According to my calculations the book must long since have been ready, but I have not yet received it.3
Your praise of the Lectures has done me a great deal of good at this moment. Living in isolation as one does nowadays, one has vigorously to remind oneself that there are still a few people for whom it is worth writing. Otherwise one would forget, and, though one does go on working for oneself, one would not commit it to paper.
Your Eulenspiegel dream will be used in the Zeitschrift.
My boys are for the moment out of danger. Martin is with the cadre in Vienna. Ernst, who had tonsillitis and was able to convalesce in S. Cristoforo on Lake Caldonazzo,4 is supposed to come on leave next week, and Oli is still “enjoying” his training in Cracow. It is better not to think in advance about the painful experiences that this spring will bring the world. Little Ernst treats me as he does his father in war, he allows himself to be helped and attended to but otherwise ignores me and demonstratively sticks to his mama, aunt, and other youngish females. He is very amusing.
Cordial greetings from
Your
Freud
1. Freud, 1916–17e.
2. The Lectures were selling extremely well.
3. Fifth edition of Freud, 1901b (with S. Karger, Berlin).
4. Location in the South Tyrol.
308A
Allenstein
11 February 1917
Dear Professor,
Soon after your letter arrived, I received the new edition of Psychopathology from Karger, which I have meanwhile read. I find it enriched in many ways. I have one small reservation to make: the examples you have taken from other authors do not all appear to be as fully analysed as your own. To give one instance: the slip of the pen on p. 102, Levitico instead of Levico, does not seem to me to be sufficiently elaborated.1 This objection only holds good for certain examples, not for those from Ferenczi, Jones, etc. A question concerning one of your own contributions (p. 96, a slip of the pen in writing about a sum of money2)! Could this not be due to the old custom of paying tithes? I should like to take this opportunity of telling you about a nice case of mixing up letters (p. 1863). I was told about it by a patient who had been in treatment with colleague Ri[klin] in Zurich. After the patient had returned to his home from Zurich, he received a letter from Ri., which the latter had addressed to the canton bank in Zurich: had they already received the sum of so-and-so many francs? And in its place a letter with medical advice had been sent off in the envelope addressed to the bank. A novel form of reminder to a patient!
If I succeed in obtaining a copy of Grimm's dictionary4 here or other relevant literature, I should like to make a small philological contribution on the same subject soon. This would represent my heartfelt thanks for your communication, which I can only express in a few words today.
You too will have been very pleased with the news from Ophuijsen.5 Van Emden used to have doubts about founding a medical association while some of the members inclined towards Jung. Since Ophuijsen has changed sides, these difficulties seem to have been resolved. In some respects I have great hopes of this re-foundation.
I have not yet received the last issue of Imago but saw it at Liebermann's and am now looking forward to your article6 in it, of which I knew nothing.
I was very glad to hear such good news from you all. Is your daughter Sophie staying in Vienna with the little boy permanently, that is to say until the end of the war? I have heard nothing more from Eitingon for a very long time. Is Rank still in Cracow?
Nothing has changed with us here, despite the long difficult cold period in the harsh region of East Prussia. May the new powerful sea action7 bring us peace! A victory over England is certainly the most radical means for that; the prospects seem very favourable to me. With the most cordial greetings from house to house,
Yours,
Karl Abraham
1. Freud, 1901b: p. 127—a communication by Hug-Hellmuth.
2. Freud, 1901b: pp. 119–120.
3. Freud, 1901b: p. 223.
4. Deutsches Wörterbuch (1852–1961, 32 vols.), the authoritative etymological dictionary of German started by Jacob [1785–1863] and Wilhelm [1786–1859] Grimm, better known for their collection of German fairy-tales.
5. The founding of the Nederlandsche Vereeniging voor Psychoanalyse [Dutch Society for Psychoanalysis] in February 1917 (see the corresponding communication in the Zeitschrift, 1916–17, 4: 217, which was “published with satisfaction at the international spread of psychoanalysis, which was not completely inhibited by the war”).
6. Freud, 1916d.
7. The governments of Germany and Austria had announced “unrestricted submarine warfare” starting from 1 February, meaning that neutral ships would also be attacked. Thereupon, two days later, the United States had broken off diplomatic relations with Germany.
309A
Allenstein
18 March 1917
Dear Professor,
Since last writing to you, I have come to know two new products of your activity, written in times so unfavourable to our science. I was very interested in the “Types” in Imago, especially in the Shakespere [sic] and Ibsen analyses,1 which I found completely convincing. The other paper,2 which you sent me in proof, gave me special pleasure, not only because of its train of thought but particularly as a personal document. It is indeed a shame that there is no possibility within the foreseeable future of our meeting and discussing a great many matters. Judging from the most recent paper, you might after all be tempted to come to this furthest north-eastern corner of Germany, if I tell you that your colleague Copernicus lived in Allenstein for many years. The interesting castle, built by an order of knights, still contains some mementoes of him.
I feel quite ashamed at being able to produce so little. At least I am at present writing a very small contribution for the Zeitschrift. It will be concerned with “The Spending of Money in Anxiety States”,3 a phenomenon that you too have probably analysed in your patients. I shall, if I find the time, try to make use of some of my old notes.
Recently a journey of several days to Königsberg with my wife brought a little diversion into our existence. My wife had to go there to do some shopping, and I used the University Library.
I hope you and your family are all still well. How did your sons get through the winter on the Alpine front? Here the winter was and is unusually stubborn, which also has not been beneficial to my health. The children are well. They are making good progress at school. Our boy, 6½ years old, recently reassured my wife that he would marry her if I should die.
I have heard from Reik from Montenegro, but not from anyone else. All these contacts will one day be re-established. The moment normal conditions return, you may be sure that I shall sound the drum, summoning everyone together again. Who knows what the next weeks may bring? At any rate, we shall do as Casimiro!
With the most cordial greetings from house to house,
Yours,
Karl Abraham
While I was looking something up in the library in Königsberg, someone happened to ask for one of your books. It was strange that I should witness the librarian giving information about it.
1. Freud, 1916d: pp. 313–315, 318–331.
2. Freud, 1917a—in which Freud compared himself with Copernicus and Darwin.
3. Abraham, 1917[55].
310A
Allenstein1
19 March 1917
Dear Professor,
I am sending this card to follow yesterday's letter. Today I have received from a gentleman whom I treated earlier (Dr Protze in Bad Ems) a small manuscript2 for my opinion as to whether it is ready for printing in one of our journals. I find the little work very charming and convincing, and am inducing the author to send it to you. If you approve of it too, you would do me a particular favour by writing a few words personally to the colleague. I believe we can expect more from him later.
With cordial greetings,
Yours,
Karl Abraham
1. Postcard.
2. Protze, 1917.
311F
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
25 March 1917
Dear Friend,
You are right to point out that the enumeration in my last paper is bound to create the impression that I claim my place alongside Copernicus and Darwin. However, I did not wish to relinquish an interesting idea just because of that semblance, and therefore at any rate put Schopenhauer in the foreground.
The printing of the Lectures is going ahead well. The book may be in your hands in May or the middle of June, whereupon I shall ask you for your detailed private criticism.
A contribution from you, whether long or short, will be “greedily” received. Regrettably, things move very slowly with the journals, though Sachs1 does everything possible.
What a pity I did not know when you were in Königsberg! My son-in-law was there for more than four weeks and only left it a few days ago; it would have been a relaxation for him. I myself can probably not visit you in Allenstein, as long as travelling is not permitted for outright patriotic reasons. No question that we shall all make up for it afterwards.
Our colleague in Bad Ems should just send his contribution in to us. As you have already assessed it, its acceptance is assured, and I shall be glad to thank him for it personally.
My sons are at present well. We are expecting Martin the day after tomorrow on leave from the cadre, Oli is very near, in Krems on the Danube,2 but there is no question of visits; he will have at most the two days of Easter free for us.3
Ferenczi is still on the Semmering, his Basedow's disease is improving, though it may leave some permanent effects.4 Jones has sent us news again. He is holding firm, and also personally things are going very well with him.5
Pfister announces a little book on Ψα and education,6 which is to appear in a few weeks' time in Leipzig. Jung is said to have published something about the unconscious,7 but I have not got it into my hands yet. Stekel has accomplished a big book on “Masturbation and Homosexuality”8 with an introduction that is very endearing to the initiated, etc. We are awaiting from you the official announcement about the Dutch group.
Many cordial greetings to your dear family from
Your
Freud
1. Who had replaced Rank.
2. About 70 km west of Vienna.
3. This is in fact what happened [8 and 9 April].
4. From February until early May 1917, Ferenczi was in a sanatorium on the Semmering near Vienna, being treated for Basedow's disease.
5. Referring to Jones's marriage with Morfydd Owen [1891–1918] (Freud & Jones, 1993: pp. 322–323).
6. Pfister, 1917.
7. Jung, 1917.
8. Stekel, 1917, 387 pp.
312A
Allenstein
22 April 1917
Dear Professor,
Enclosed is the promised short manuscript for the medical journal!1 I wonder whether you will agree with the conclusions?
I am writing in greater detail soon. For today, only cordial greetings!
Yours,
Karl Abraham
1. Abraham, 1917[55].
313A
Allenstein
4 May 1917
Dear Professor,
The first priority of these lines is to bring you my very best wishes for your birthday! Unfortunately, I am not in a position this time to offer you a gift in the form of a more substantial contribution to the journals. The trifle I recently sent you is in your hands, and another may follow soon. My duties are so exacting that they prevent me from undertaking longer papers. I have had one analytic case for some time and I may shortly send you a dream of his, of the type you were previously seeking examples of.1 I am able to report with respect to scientific matters that my psychiatric work has given me excellent proof of the correctness of your theory on paranoia. A few of the cases are so transparent that I should like to write something on them, but considerations because of my being in service would make it too difficult to publish them for the time being. As you can see, I am not completely stagnating, in spite of the war.
I impatiently await Part III of the Lectures. You are, as always, at work, putting all of us younger ones to shame. The three years of war have scarcely impeded your research, they were not very fruitful for me. Yesterday I passed the 40 mark. We both start on a new year of life at nearly the same time, and I have many wishes for you, dear Herr Professor, as well as for myself—I need hardly enumerate them.
Your news about Ferenczi's illness was a complete surprise to me. I knew nothing about it, and I beg you to tell me something more about him. And also about all your family. Those at the front will surely be well, in view of the quiet in the east and south, and the well-being of those at home depends on that in no small measure.
Did the little paper by Dr Protze go in? Is Rank not writing at all now? I heard from Reik from Montenegro. But from nobody else. I have heard nothing from Eitingon for a long time. Where is he?
Are you thinking of going to Germany in the foreseeable future? Or is the attraction from Hamburg still with you? I am sorry that I knew nothing about your son-in-law's stay in Königsberg. It would have been so easy to spend some time with him.
With cordial greetings to you and your house, in which my wife joins me,
Yours,
Karl Abraham
1. See letter 151A, 6 February 1913, & n. 1.
314F
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
20 May 1917
Dear Friend,
After your last communication, with which I was supposed not to be in agreement (but why?), I had to wait a long time for your promised letter. Yesterday it arrived at last, dated the 4th inst.! My heartfelt thanks for your congratulations, though I hold that at this time of life no notice should be taken of such anniversaries, and I think with regret how different your entry into a new decade would have been, had not this disaster overtaken us all.
I see with dismay that you deprecate yourself in relation to me, building me up in the process into a kind of imago instead of describing me objectively. In reality I have grown quite old and rather frail and tired, and have to some extent turned away from work. The Lectures were still written in the summer holidays, and since then I have done nothing, though some short papers are still being published. Life bears too heavily on me. I talk very little about this, because I know that the other would take such statements as complaints and signs of depression and not as objective descriptions, which would be unfair to me. I believe I have had my time, and I am no more depressed than usual, thus very little, and console myself with the assurance that my work lies in the good hands of continuers such as you and Ferenczi, and perhaps some others. You in particular have written in these unfavourable conditions the two best clinical studies that we possess and have certainly compiled ample new material.
I have here an almost complete new edition of the Lectures, but it will certainly take another 3–4 weeks before I am able to send you the book. Thanks to Sachs's really astonishing efforts, the two journals are continuing; the printing of the next issue of Imago was held up by a sudden paper shortage. But it will be pushed through.
I do not expect to travel to Germany in the immediate future. The senseless restrictions make it quite impossible. My daughter left on the 14th inst. and joined her husband yesterday. He is in Schwerin, and she will probably soon move into a lodging-house there. It is very lonely here, as for quite a while we have had a lively family life through the child and frequent visits from the soldiers. Martin is still with the cadre1 in Linz, Ernst in the 10th battle of Isonzo (last news on the 14th inst.), Oli still training in Krems. Ferenczi has found us lodgings in the Tatra mountains on lake Csorba, but we must get there by 1 July.2
Ferenczi, who has always had mild symptoms of Basedow's disease, had become weak through over-exertion and excitement, but made a good recovery after staying on the Semmering for three months. He has been back in Budapest since the 10th inst., Hotel Royal, and he will surely also sort out his private circumstances once and for all.3 As you see, he is working very hard on the Zeitschrift. Rank has a very sterile and depressive time behind him but is now pulling himself together and is going to bring out a second edition of his Artist.4 We have heard from Jones that he has married a young compatriot, a singer, he is very happy and regards himself as a reformed character.5 He has also published the translation of Ferenczi's works,6 but cannot send us the book.
Reik is still in Montenegro, Eitingon (Miskolcz, Res. Hospital, Rud. Barracks) recently asked after you and wanted your address. This very day I had the news by telegram from van Ophuijsen that Joh. Stärcke had died suddenly.7 He was secretary of the new group; I did not know him, it is certainly a regrettable loss.
Protze's paper has gone in and allotted to the next Imago, which means that there is going to be a postponement of 4–5 months.
Our inner conflict here is perhaps nowhere so plainly revealed as it is by the extremely notable trial of Fr. Adler. He happens to have been born precisely in the rooms in which we live. I once saw him here when he was a boy of 2.8
When we meet again, we shall have many things to talk over that are now either not clear or are not communicable at a distance.
With cordial greetings to you and your dear wife and children,
Your faithfully devoted
Freud
1. English in original.
2. That is, earlier than Freud usually started his summer holidays.
3. Referring to Ferenczi's indecision of many years' duration whether or not to marry his mistress Gizella Pálos. The marriage would finally take place on 1 March 1919.
4. Rank, 1907 (second edition 1918).
5. These two words in English in original. Referring to Jones's sexual affairs.
6. Jones's translation of Ferenczi's papers had been published under the title Contributions to Psychoanalysis (Ferenczi 1916[186]) by Badger (Boston) in 1916.
7. Johan Stärcke [1882–1917], younger brother of August Stärcke, practising physician in Amsterdam, translator of Freud's On Dreams (1901a) and The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901b), first secretary of the Dutch Society (see Ophuijsen's obituary in the Zeitschrift, 1916/17, 4: 274–276).
8. The day before, the trial against Friedrich Adler [1879–1960] had ended with his being sentenced to death. Adler became an almost legendary figure by virtue of his assassination of the Austrian prime minister Karl Graf Stürgkh on 21 October 1916 and the speech he made in his own defence. He was pardoned in 1918 and subsequently assumed positions of leadership in Austrian and international Social Democratic politics; but he also made a name for himself as a theoretician in physics. His father, Dr Victor Adler [1852–1918], was a leading personality in the Austrian Social Democratic Party. Freud knew him as a student and by way of mutual friends (e.g. Heinrich Braun). The Freud family had the same apartment in Berggasse 19, where Adler's family had lived earlier and where Freud had seen the young Friedrich Adler. (See also Freud's letter of 30 October 1927 to Julie Braun-Vogelstein, Freud, 1960a: p. 380.)
315A
Allenstein
28 May 1917
Dear Professor,
So, your long silence was due to postal delays. Your letter of the 20th arrived here yesterday. I was pleased to learn from it that you and all your family are well and especially wish you at this moment continued good news from your warrior on the Isonzo. Many thanks for all your news. I very much regret that there is no prospect of a meeting yet.
The Zeitschrift arrived at the same time as your letter; a particularly good and substantial number—amazingly good for wartime! I can make no comment on your paper,1 except to agree with it. I was especially pleased with Ferenczi's essay.2 I held a talk here on the same theme more than a year ago which coincides in every detail with what he writes. I may soon write a short supplementary paper, since it might be possible to add some important points that I have recently come to understand. The variety of his contributions to the last issue3 proves to me that Ferenczi is well on the way to recovery. I shall write to him one of these days. It is a good thing in these difficult times that Sachs, with his characteristic devotion, can dedicate himself to the journals. Who knows what would otherwise have become of them.
There is not much new to say about us. We shall spend the summer holidays, which begin on 21 July, in Nidden on the Kurian spit of land, a little holiday resort that we already know and that offers a combination of the Baltic and a very beautiful forest. Before that I am going to Bremen for a few days, as my mother, who will soon be 70, is not well.
In spite of your appreciation of my two recent contributions, which I do not wish to belittle myself, I nevertheless feel dissatisfied with myself. It represents too small a harvest over three years, particularly since all the material on which it was based was ready before the war. Let us therefore continue to hope that the great change will soon come.
With the most cordial greetings from house to house,
Yours,
Karl Abraham
1. Freud, 1916–17e.
2. Ferenczi, 1916[189], on war neuroses.
3. In addition to the essay, Ferenczi had contributed two brief communications (1916[190], 1916[191]) as well as a book review (1917[204]).
316A
Allenstein1
17 June 1917
Dear Professor,
Very many thanks for sending the book2 and for the short offprint3! I have only read a few pages of the former, but with the greatest satisfaction. You asked me some time ago for my criticism of the whole work. Would you agree if I did not put this in a letter but wrote it for the Zeitschrift? I could then write it during my summer holiday, which I shall probably start on 20 July. Or has somebody else already been given the review?—A second, younger psychiatrist4 has recently been appointed to my hospital; he is interested in psychoanalysis and may settle in Berlin after the war.
With best regards from house to house,
Yours,
Karl Abraham
1. Postcard.
2. The complete Lectures in one volume (Freud, 1916–17a).
3. Not identified; perhaps Freud, 1916–17c.
4. One Dr Rudberg; see letter 322A, 23 September 1917.
317F
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
22 June 1917
Dear Friend,
Have I already had an opportunity of telling you that we shall be leaving on the evening of 30 June for Csorbató in the Tatra Mountains (Villa Maria Theresia), Liptau County? Nature is said to be magnificent, everything called food is nowadays a question mark.
So far my books have never been reviewed in our journals. If you would like to inaugurate a different policy with the lectures, you would be troubled neither by objections nor competition. Your observations will be just as valuable to me, whether you make them publicly or by letter.
I can promise you an issue of the Zeitschrift and also one of Imago within the next few days. Everything now takes a long time. In any case, if one finds any energy and spirit again nowadays, one uses them up raging and grousing.
Enjoy your holiday with your family thoroughly, but write to me first.
Yours,
Freud
318A
Dear Professor,
Just a few lines to greet you at the beginning of your summer holiday and to thank you for your letter of the 22nd!
Do you know that in Part III of the Lectures the upper part of page 284 is so misprinted that it does not make sense? (apparently because lines have been left out). The publisher could easily make a small overlay with the correct text and have it pasted into all copies.
More soon! This time only cordial greetings to you and all your family. How are your sons at the front?
Yours,
Karl Abraham
1. Postcard.
2. “29. 8. 17.”; without doubt, however, this letter belongs here (see Freud's following answer regarding p. 284 of the Lectures and Abraham's thanks for Freud's previous letter of the 22nd).
319F
Csorbató1
13 July 1917
Dear Friend,
This place is situated on Lake Csorba 4,000 feet up in magnificent surroundings and with beautiful forests, but it rains and storms mercilessly and we are as cold as if it were winter. I do not know whether we shall put up with it for long. Ferenczi is expected to arrive here on leave on the 24th.
The sentence on p. 284 of the Lectures should read that it is precisely “a delusion of jealousy and not one of another kind. You realize the…”; instead of that the printer had repeated the similarly placed sentence on p. 282 (despite the proof corrections).2 But nothing can now be done about it, especially from here. The printing was such trouble that I will be happy if no more harm was done.
A woman patient of Jung's has sent me his new work on the psychology of the Ucs.3 so that I should change my judgement on the noble character. It bears the date 1917. But he seems not to have gone beyond the crude conversion into theory of the fact that he came across myself and Adler. We meet in the “archaic”.
Shortly before we left, my sister's twenty-year-old only son4 was killed in action. Grief was beyond description. There is no news about my warriors.
Hoping that your well-earned leave will do you nothing but good and asking you for news about yourself and your dear family,
Cordially yours,
Freud
1. Lake Csorba.
2. Freud, 1916–17: p. 253, lines 13ff. from top.
3. See letter 311F, 25 March 1917, & n. 7.
4. Hermann [b. 1894], son of Freud's sister Rosa [1860–1942] and Heinrich Graf [ca. 1852–1908], had died at the Italian front. The couple's other child, Cäcilie (“Mausi”) [b. 1899], committed suicide in 1922, while in analysis with Paul Federn.
320A
Nidden on the Kurian spit of land
Address from August 17th Allenstein again!)
10 August 1917
Dear Professor,
I hope that in the Hungarian mountains, where you suffered so badly from the weather at first, you have later been enjoying yourself so much that you and your family can have a perfect rest there. I am sending this letter to Csorbató. We too have landed in a remote corner, the most north-easterly of the fatherland. Nidden is about in the centre of the spit of land about 100 km long, on the Kurian lagoon, on the shore of which I am sitting writing. In absolutely wonderful weather we are enjoying nature in this secluded spit of land with its huge forests and sand-hills. In the mornings we usually go across to the other coast, to bathe. The children are so absolutely in their element; they mostly float on the water or go with us to pick berries. Afternoons and evenings are spent in excursions, sailing, etc. As we are also well looked after, we feel very happy here and disregard some shortcomings. For me it was high time to have longer holidays after last year's very great burden of work. Last winter, which was so particularly hard, I suffered a great deal, in the harsh climate of East Prussia, from bronchial catarrh with asthmatic symptoms. Even now I am unfortunately not free from it. However, I am in general satisfied with my recovery here.
As relative quiet reigns on the Italian front, I hope that all is still well with your familia militans at the front. The tragic event you reported, I mean the death of your nephew, must, especially now, have had a particularly distressing effect on his mother and all of you. After three years of fearing and hoping, to lose one's only son must be particularly difficult. In my family—not, indeed, among those closest to me—a similar case occurred.
I hope you and yours, among whom I may also count Ferenczi, are in good health.
Yesterday I read the third part of the Lectures to the end. I shall try to express my personal thanks in the form of the review I have already promised; I shall write it in the course of the next weeks, and will today only say that this, the only scientific book that I brought here with me, has only contributed to the enhancement of the joys of holiday.
With the most cordial greetings to you and yours, also from my wife.
Yours,
Karl Abraham
321F
Csorbató
21 August 1917
Dear Friend,
What you supposed has happened. Once the bad weather had been overcome, a splendid, enjoyable summer happened to set in, undeservedly delightful holidays, which my wife and daughter have also been enjoying as they have seldom enjoyed holidays before. The Hungarians are unmannerly and noisy but obliging and hospitable; friendship and loyalty are taking the form of generosity, with the result that we are able to wallow in the abundance of bread, butter, sausages, eggs, and cigars, rather like the chief of a primitive tribe. The catering of the hotel alone would not have been able to do so much, though in present circumstances it does not deserve to be criticized. I am even able to indulge in my passion for hunting for mushrooms in the forests here. I have done no work, but have been able for hours and for whole half days to forget the wretched state of the world; in addition, during this period my three warriors have been away from the front. Shortly before our departure my sister's only son, a boy of 20, was killed in the Italian theatre of war.
Sachs stayed with us here for three weeks, Ferenczi for about a fortnight. Both wives, respectively wives-to-be,1 were also very close by. Rank came here once for a visit, over the mountains from Cracow. Eitingon was also here for a day and thanked us for his welcome with a colossal food parcel. He looks very well, has become stouter, is bored with respect to scientific matters but delighted about his wife's occupation2; he is probably with her now in Karlsbad. A few days later they were expecting my daughter,3 who had travelled to an estate in the Hungarian plains to visit Ferenczi's family in Miskolcz,4 and I have no doubt that they fed her very well.
No news scientifically. Heller has received a good fee for the Dutch translation (of the Lectures).5 You know that I now need money, and nothing so urgently as money, for my family. Binswanger has sent me part of the manuscript of his book, which is to deal with the position of Ψα in relation to psychology.6
So now your leave is behind you. I hope that it has invigorated you and your family for a long time to come! We are thinking of leaving for Vienna on the 30th or 31st. Sachs is hard at work trying to convert the standstill in the production of our journals into movement.
With the most cordial greetings to you and your dear wife,
Yours,
Freud
1. Grete Ilm and Gizella Pálos.
2. Mirra Jacovleina, née Raigorodsky, an actress; married to Eitingon since 1913, helped him in his work in the military hospital.
3. Anna.
4. Where Eitingon was stationed at the time.
5. Antwerp, Amsterdam: Maatsch. Voor goede en goedkoope lectuur, 1918, 1919, 2 vols. Tr., intro. and foreword by A. W. van Renterghem.
6. Binswanger did not realize his intention to write a book about psychoanalysis and psychology in this form; a first part was published in 1922 (Binswanger, 1922), the manuscript of the second part is lost (see Binswanger, 1956: pp. 63–64; Freud & Binswanger, 1992: pp. xx–xxii; cf. Freud & Ferenczi, 1996: p. 235).
322A
Allenstein
23 September 1917
Dear Professor,
I assume that you have been back in Vienna for some weeks just as we have been back here in Allenstein. My wife and children benefited from the holiday, and I at least had a good rest, though my old bronchial trouble somewhat spoilt my holiday. After we got back, my colleague Liebermann also went on four weeks' leave, so that I immediately had to take a great burden of work on my shoulders again. What with my bad state of health in the holidays and the overload of work, the result is that I have not completed the review of your Lectures as I meant to. Our financial position makes it necessary for me to carry on the practice to some extent in addition to my hospital work. Naturally my scientific interests are not getting their fair share of time. In a few days I am going (sent officially) to the Neurologists' Congress in Bonn. I shall scarcely see any of our friends. I am looking forward most to churches and museums in Cologne and Bonn. After the Congress I am going to Bremen for a few days to see my mother, who is almost past her 70th year, and on the way back to Allenstein I am having one day in Berlin. My wife is meeting me in Bremen. After that we have the endless East Prussian winter before us; so we have quickly to collect a few pleasant impressions.
On the scientific side I have hardly anything of my own to report, except perhaps that several cases of obsessional neurosis, only superficially investigated, have given me striking confirmation concerning sadism and anal erotism. The other faithful members of our small circle had the opportunity of meeting you this summer. Unfortunately I have had to forego this pleasure for exactly three years, as three years have passed since you and your brother were in Berlin in 1914! I constantly plan to make up for lost time, as far as possible, immediately once the war is over. But as long as “impotence of thoughts”1 is reigning, I shall be confined to wishing.
For a short time a young doctor called Rudberg has been working in my hospital; he is very interested in Ψα and wants to take to it altogether. I hear to my delight that interest in our cause is increasing among young doctors, and that people interested in psychiatry are cherishing the wish to be posted to my hospital.
Since I shall be unable for the time being to review your Lectures for the Zeitschrift, I should like to say a few words here. The third part is so excellent that I find it difficult to pick out any examples. So much has been placed in a new context and so many new ideas and vistas opened up that I shall have to read it again to be able to judge it as a whole. As I have very little time, I can only read it chapter by chapter, but I shall savour it more fully that way. In my opinion, the 19th chapter2 is the climax of the whole, and I would say it has made such a strong impression on me as scarcely any of your other works. The same could be said of the last lectures. Only after the war is over shall we be able to feel properly grateful that it was in fact the war that gave you the leisure to write up the Lectures. We may then expect a rapid advancement in our prestige, and new followers will at last have the kind of introduction that was lacking before (though I believe that the initiated will gain far more from the Lectures than beginners).
During the heavy fighting on the Italian front my wife and I often thought of your sons. I sincerely hope that they have remained unhurt and that all of you at home are well too. Many thanks for your report on all our friends who visited you in Csorbató. Unfortunately one loses touch through such a long separation. I should like to know where Reik is (still in Montenegro?) and how Ferenczi is. Do you still hear from Jones? I secretly hope that one of the Dutch members will come to the Congress in Bonn.
With cordial greetings and good wishes to you all, also from my wife,
Yours,
Karl Abraham
1. As opposed to the “omnipotence of thoughts”, a formulation of Dr Ernst Lanzer (the “Rat Man”), taken over and elaborated by Freud in Part III of Totem and Taboo (1912–13a).
2. “Resistance and Repression”.
323F
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
5 October 1917
Dear Friend,
Your letter gave me great but painful pleasure. How much has changed since we last saw each other, and not everything for the better. When I think of the time when you told me that it was no longer an act of martyrdom to be called my pupil.1 The enclosure with this letter,2 unless it remains in the hands of the censor, illustrates one of these changes. If you find me cross and annoyed, you will know why.
Csorbató was absolutely beautiful, but tomorrow we shall have been in Vienna for five weeks. We hurried because our Ernst has come to Vienna from Isonzo as a patient. So he missed the 11th battle. His suffering is a return of his earlier stomach trouble, supposedly caused by an ulcer; but it will probably turn out to be the gall-bladder. At present he is at home on leave, which he is striving to get extended, cheerful and glad of the rest. He just could not stand it any longer. Instead, Martin is now in the same area, Oli in Cracow, and perhaps after a few weeks he too will be down there.
After a few days I got a great deal of work, and am now working for 8–9 hours a day with nine patients. It amuses me and, strangely enough, has done much good to my health, to which the certainty of avoiding the otherwise inevitable bankruptcy substantially contributes. My income is now the same as before the war, but the value of money has changed greatly. My writing—I had some little things in progress—will be held up for only a short time.
Your praise of the Lectures pleased me greatly, though my opinion of them does not accord with yours. I hope you will still discover their great deficiencies and not leave them unmentioned in your review.
Ferenczi is working assiduously in Budapest and is close to bringing his fifteen-year-old heart saga to a happy ending. Reik really is in Montenegro. Eitingon was our guest in Vienna for a few hours on his way back from Karlsbad. Not long ago I had a good, warm-hearted letter from Frau Dr Horney. She seems to be valuable. My inner certainty against Jung and Adler has increased a great deal. Occasional letters arrive from the Dutch. Ophuijsen is entirely on our side. You will soon read an article of his in the Zeitschrift on the masculinity complex of women.3 Renterghem is translating the Lectures, Emden is as faithful and as sluggish as ever.
Tausk and Ferenczi want to comment on your paper on ejaculatio praecox.4 I received Tausk's contribution today; it does not agree with you entirely, but is very interesting. We now have plenty of material for both periodicals, but we cannot keep up with the printing.
Jones wrote in true English spirit a few weeks ago5 that German resistance was still too strong, so the war was bound to last for a few years yet.
As I write to you so seldom, I do not know whether I have yet mentioned the Lamarckian work,6 the point of which is to be that even the “omnipotence of thoughts” was a reality once.
I do not know where this letter will meet you. Hopefully it will reach you, and will soon bring me an answer, as pleasant a one as is to be had in these days.
With cordial greetings to you and your dear wife,
Your old
Freud
P.S.: A slip of the pen from a letter (Martin) while the battle of Isonzo was going on: I have not understood the Schußsatz7 of your letter.
1. Letter 131A, 24 July 1912.
2. Missing; see the following letter.
3. Ophuijsen, 1917.
4. Tausk, 1917. Ferenczi did not write a review of Abraham's paper but discussed it and ejaculatio praecox in his paper at the Psychoanalytic Congress in Berlin [1922] and in the first pages of Thalassa (1924[268]).
5. Not in Freud & Jones, 1993.
6. A plan by Freud and Ferenczi, later abandoned, to write a joint book on “Lamarck and Ψα” (22 December 1916, Freud & Ferenczi, 1996: p. 166), proceeding from Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck's [1744—1829] hypothesis that individually acquired features could be inserted into the genetic code and be inherited, and showing that “[w]hat are now neuroses were once phases of the human condition” (12 July 1915; ibid.: p. 66). Freud had already drafted some ideas in his Phylogenetic Phantasy (1985a [1915]), not published in his lifetime; subsequently he distanced himself more and more from the project and finally “prefer[red] to relinquish the whole thing” in a letter to Ferenczi (29 May 1917; ibid.: p. 210). Eventually, Ferenczi's Thalassa would contain many of these ideas.
7. Instead of Schlußsatz [closing sentence]; Schuß means “shot” [trans.].
324A
Allenstein
2 November 1917
Dear Professor,
The great events of the last few days1 have often drawn my thoughts towards Vienna. Today I want first of all to express the hope that your sons have remained unhurt! They must have been through a gruelling time. May we at last be able to gather the fruits of this outstanding success in the form of favourable peace terms!
Now I have to thank you for your last letter, with the enclosed picture. Just to show that I do not always see only the good side of things, I want to stress my impression that three years of war have not passed you by either without leaving their mark. Hardly any of us will have remained completely unscathed in body and soul. You would find me too gone grey and, in spite of sufficient food, much reduced in weight. I find your photograph—apart from the changes for which the photographer cannot be held responsible—otherwise good. Perhaps I shall have an opportunity of sending you a photograph of myself. Many a thing has indeed changed. What, for instance, might have happened to Casimiro's courage during the last few days?
How is your son Ernst, who was at home recovering when you wrote, and how are you and all the others? Your letter contained some pleasant news: that you are back at work with your old vigour, that Ferenczi is approaching a wish-fulfilment, and that our Dutch colleagues are eagerly at work. I did not quite follow your hint about a paper on Lamarck. What did you mean? You have not mentioned it before, but must have thought you had done so. I am curious about Tausk's remarks on my last paper. So far I do not like his paper on deserters,2 it is too verbose, not concise enough. Incidentally, I shall make use of my experiences in legal psychiatry over the last two years for this topic—not for a psychoanalytic paper, but for my Habilitation paper in order to try my luck after the war.
I forgot to tell you last time of an interesting lapsus of Bleuler's. In his work “The Physical and Psychic”3 he incorrectly reproduced several things from the Interpretation of Dreams. I referred him to the newly published Lectures on the Dream. After reading the latter, Bleuler wrote,4 inter alia: “As I have shown, Freud has for many years directed his attention only to the psychological aspects of dreams and has deliberately and consciously ignored everything else. I finished reading his latest publication only yesterday. Admittedly in this he pays more attention to other aspects which partly serve to supplement his former theories and which partly weaken them; but I must say that his previous ingenious and vigorous one-sidedness has hindered impressed me more than his present reserve…” (The letter was typewritten; the correction was hand-written in the original with a pencil. Do you not think the correction very instructive? Impressed instead of hindered! In fact he was hindered since it obstructed his ambition!)
I recently received a very interesting paper by Fliess; it contains brilliant new observations about a pituitary syndrome. Would you be interested? If so, I could send it to you.
Our life here is not subject to any great changes. My wife and the children are well. Hoping to receive good news about all of you soon, I am, with the most cordial greetings from my wife and myself,
Yours,
Karl Abraham
1. The 12th and last Isonzo battle, begun on 24 October, which led to the collapse of the Italian army.
2. Tausk, 1916–17. The paper was published in two parts; the second had not yet appeared.
3. Bleuler, 1916.
4. Letter of 10 July 1917 (LOC).
325F
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
11 November 1917
Dear Friend,
I have today been able to overcome a certain reluctance to answering your letter because we have just had the first news of Martin since the beginning of the offensive (23 October),1 and he is well. Ernst is still with us, and Oli is building on a bridge across the Dnjester.
I have a great deal to do, with 8–9 analyses a day and some in reserve, and am very pleased at being able to avoid brooding and worrying in this way. It is still very interesting. But I am ageing rapidly all the same, and occasionally feel doubtful whether I shall live to see the end of the war, whether I shall ever see you again, etc. During the war travelling to Germany is practically out of the question. The next blow that I expect is the stoppage of our journals; Heller is not threatening this, but with the continuation of the war it will become inevitable. At any rate I behave as if we were faced with the end of all things, and in the last few days I have got ready for publication in the Zeitschrift two papers of the “metapsychological” series Mψ [metapsychological] Supplement to the Theory of Dreams, Mourning and Melancholia).2 I originally intended to use these and other papers, with those already printed (Instincts and their vicissitudes, Repression, The Unconscious3), for a book. But this is not the time for it. It will also be a good thing for your promised review of the Lectures to see the light of day before the end of the world that is to be expected. With the cessation of the journals our role will for the time being have been played out.
As you see, I do not believe that the events in Russia4 and Italy will bring us peace. I think one should take the British assurances about their intentions seriously and also admit that the U-boat war5 has not achieved its object. In that case our future is pretty dim.
What you say about Bleuler's statement again shows how difficult it is to please people. I hope you have not received the impression that I have weakened or taken anything back. I have heard about Fliess's work, things are too uncertain to send it to me, unless you have two copies. I shall try to hunt up a copy here.
Have I really not told you about the Lamarck idea? It arose between Ferenczi and me, but neither of us has the time or spirit to tackle it at present. The idea is to put Lamarck entirely on our ground and to show that his “need”, which creates and transforms organs, is nothing but the power of Ucs. ideas over one's own body, of which we see remnants in hysteria, in short the “omnipotence of thoughts”. This would actually supply a Ψα explanation of expediency; it would put the coping stone on Ψα. Two big principles of change (of progress) would emerge; the change through adaptation of one's own body and the subsequent change through transformation of the external world (autoplastic and heteroplastic),6 etc.
I am not sure either whether I have drawn your attention to a book by Groddeck in Baden-Baden (Ψ Determination and Ψα Treatment of Organic Illnesses, S. Hirzel, 1917).7 Lou Andreas's paper in the Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft8 will not have escaped your attention. Full of subtleties, but hardly intelligible to the general public.
Enough for today; I send my cordial greetings to you and yours.
Yours,
Freud
Poveretto Casimiro!
1. See letter 324A, 2 November 1917, n. 1.
2. Freud, 1916–17f, 1916–17g (cf. letter 256F, 25 November 1914, n. 1).
3. Freud, 1915c, 1915d, 1915e.
4. On 7 and 8 November the Bolsheviks had seized power in Russia (the October Revolution) and subsequently entered into truce negotiations.
5. See letter 308A, 11 February 1917, n. 7.
6. Cf. Ferenczi, 1924[268].
7. Groddeck, 1917. Walter Georg Groddeck [1866–1934], German physician and writer, founder [in 1900] and director of a sanatorium in Baden-Baden. On 27 May 1917 he had written to Freud (Freud & Groddeck, 1974: pp. 31–36), who had, in the beginning, supported Groddeck even though their relationship cooled later on. Groddeck remained outside the psychoanalytic organizations and termed himself a “wild analyst”. He is considered a pioneer in psychosomatic and holistic medicine (cf. Groddeck, 1923). He saw all physical and psychic phenomena as forms of expression of the “it” (a term borrowed from Nietzsche). In therapy he emphasized the role of—above all, negative— transference and countertransference in connection with somatotherapeutic, suggestive, and dietetic techniques. He influenced psychoanalysts like Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Karl Landauer, Heinrich Meng, and Ernst Simmel. (Cf. Grossman & Grossman, 1965; Martynkewicz, 1997; Will, 1984.)
8. Andreas-Salomé, 1917.
326A
Allenstein
2 December 1917
Dear Professor,
I found it quite distressing to receive such a gloomy letter from you. It would not be psychoanalytic were I to attempt to dispel your mood with counter-arguments and I shall therefore only take up one of your worries. You think that our journals will soon cease publication. I have written to Sachs today asking him to inform you of a suggestion that seems to me to be in keeping with the times. If you both agree, a solution could be found.
I hope you have further good news from the front and that all of you at home are in good health. I have been very preoccupied with the theoretical content of your letter (Lamarck). You will remember that for several years I worked on the history of evolution and theories of heredity, etc., and therefore have a particular interest in these problems. I can hardly comment on your theory on the basis of the brief hints you have given me, but I feel extremely envious of those who have the opportunity of frequently exchanging views with you, while I can only write my Epistulae ex Ponto.1
The most recent political events in Russia seem to me well worth noting, however sceptical I may be regarding an early peace. When it comes, our science will be sure to rise to unprecedented heights. After these years when interests have inevitably been focused on the war, on politics, and on getting enough to eat, there will be a voracious appetite for science, and I think quite a few prejudices will have disappeared.
I cannot help saying it—we are, after all, better off than Casimiro.
For today, only hasty greetings from house to house,
Yours,
Karl Abraham
1. Latin: “letters from the Black Sea”—i.e. from the exile.
327F
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
10 December1 1917
Dear Friend,
I am using the leisure of a Sunday to reply to your letter of the 2nd inst. (and I am freezing so as I do so that I made the mistake of writing the 7th month). In the streets they have just called out the news of the armistice with Russia,2 and if one had not grown so blunted, one would be glad at having survived the end of half the war.
Sachs has told me of your proposal. It is impracticable, since it involves Deuticke, who has stopped everything since the beginning of the war, and is also very ill and angry besides, because the Lectures are being published by Heller. Meanwhile what I feared has rapidly come true. The last issue of Imago (No. 2), which has been printed for a long time, cannot be distributed because no wrapping paper is obtainable, and Prochaska has already announced that he has no paper for Rank's Artist,3 of which Heller wanted to produce a second edition. Officially we have not ceased publication, and perhaps we shall be able to drag on for some time yet. Sachs still hopes to avoid the ignominy of having to stop before the last issue of the Zeitschrift (No. 6) without being able to complete the annual series. I wanted to print in that issue the two papers from the metapsychological series about which I have already written to you.4
I should gladly tell you more about the Lamarck, but it would have to be on a walk. I am at daggers drawn with writing, as with many other things. Included among them is your dear German fatherland. I can hardly imagine myself ever going there again, even when it becomes physically possible again. In the struggle between the Entente and the Quadruple Alliance I have definitely adopted the viewpoint of Heine's Donna Bianca in the disputation in Toledo:
All I can say is…5
The only thing that gives me any pleasure is the capture of Jerusalem and the British experiment with the chosen people.6
I am very busy, and for nine hours a day on six days of the week I can exercise patience and superiority. On the seventh both generally yield.
With my cordial greetings to you and your wife,
Yours,
Freud
1. The “XII” in the handwriting is corrected from VII (see below).
2. On 5 December, the Central Powers and Russia had agreed in Brest-Litovsk to an armistice from 7 to 17 December, prolonged on 15 December until 14 January 1918.
3. See letter 314F, 20 May 1917, & n. 4.
4. This is what happened.
5. Welcher recht hat, weiss ich nicht—/ Doch es will mich schier bedünken, / Dass der Rabbi und der Mönch, / Dass sie alle beide stinken [I don't know which one is right—/ But all I can say is, / That the Rabbi and the Monk, / That both of them stink]; final lines from Heinrich Heine's [1797–1856] “Disputation” (Romanzero, Third Book: Hebraic Melodies).
6. The reference is to the taking of Jerusalem by British troops the day before, ending 673 years of Ottoman rule, and to the declaration by the British Foreign Minister Arthur James Balfour [1848–1930] of 2 November that “His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object.”
328A
Allenstein
16 December 1917
Dear Professor,
These days mark the 10th anniversary of my first visit to you in Vienna just after I had started my practice! It has in recent times looked rather more likely that I shall be back in Berlin in the foreseeable future and that I shall then also be able to visit Vienna again. Plans for the future are thus beginning to assume a somewhat more definite shape.
A week ago I had to escort a sick officer from my hospital to Bremen, and therefore had the opportunity of spending two days with my mother. I made use of a short stay in Berlin to visit privy councillor Bonhoeffer and to discuss with him the question of my Habilitation. I knew that B. is quite generous and that he has kept apart from all attacks made against us. He was personally quite accommodating, drew my attention to all the obstacles, and, although he was honest enough to make no promises, was not in principle opposed to the idea. He said that he would enquire of Bleuler, among others, about my scientific qualifications, and he also asked me for a list of my publications. The matter thus does not seem completely hopeless to me. One point was not discussed but is of some importance. B. may well be afraid that a follower of an “extremist” school of thought would use his lectures to wage war against the established school of thought. It would have been appropriate to reassure B. beforehand in this respect, but I said nothing of this, either in our discussions or in a letter I wrote to him today, because I was afraid of giving a wrong impression. The thought has occurred to me that a letter from you, dear Herr Professor, mentioning not only my scientific qualifications but also my personal qualities along those lines, might be helpful and reassuring in this respect. I am, however, not quite sure whether this would be the best way, and I shall leave it to you to decide whether to write or not. I think a reassurance that there would be no reason to fear unpleasant incidents on my part would be appropriate. Perhaps you can think of a better way to allay such a fear?—The work on my paper for Habilitation is in the meantime progressing slowly. It has just occurred to me that it might be better to write such a letter to Kraus, with whom you have had correspondence about me before. You might ask him to talk to B. on this point! At any rate I give you both addresses: Privy councillor Professor Dr Bonhoeffer, Director of the Psychiatric Clinic of the Königliche Charité, Berlin NW., and Privy councillor Professor Dr Kraus, Director of the 2nd Medical Department of the Königliche Charité.
Nothing new from us! I hope all is well with you too, both at home and at the front. With many thanks in anticipation and best regards,
Yours,
Karl Abraham
329F
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
21 December 1917
Dear Friend,
I am glad to hear that you are able to make any plans at all for the future. If I can do anything to help, I shall gladly do so. But a strong feeling warns me against writing to Bonhoeffer. If I express the thoughts that go with it, they are the following: I find nothing particularly hopeful in your account of your conversation with him. I doubt whether personal intervention by me will do more good than harm, and I am reluctant to get in touch with a stranger from whom I am not sure even of receiving at least the usual courtesies. Even Kraus, who is perfectly amicable towards me, could not bring himself to answer one of the two letters I sent him. The course that the collaboration on his handbook has taken, can have had only a cautionary effect on me, even though I let myself be guided by consideration for his relations with you.
For these reasons I think it far preferable to write again to K., with whom the ice is already broken, and, picking up the thread of my pre-war letter to him, to try to persuade him to back you with B. I shall do so this week, though I do not think it will help much. I shall write to the effect that I know you not to be one of those who turn scientific opposition into personal animosity and thus damage the dignity of science (at any rate in our sense of the word!).
Otherwise I have no news. Is it really ten years? They were significant and rich in substance enough, though not always pleasant.
My greetings to you and yours
cordially, your
Freud
330F
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
26 December 1917
Dear Friend,
I am afraid you may have concluded from my last letter that I was unwilling to write to Kraus and hence may be worrying that the promised letter would run aground on enigmatic obstacles. So let me reassure you by telling you that the letter has already gone off in perfect order.
It did certainly cost me some gnashing of teeth. There was one part of the complex against which one has to struggle, and another that overcame the struggling. The two parts were naturally anger at being in the position of having to ask a favour of the hostile world, and consideration that it might perhaps be useful to you. I hope that the latter may turn out to be correct.
Rank came to see me yesterday. He is now a prisoner of the editorial department of the Krakauer Zeitung and is in very low spirits.
If this letter reaches you in time for the New Year, may it bring you the end of exile and a new beginning of independent existence.
Cordially yours,
Freud