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The Hague,
23.7.1910
Dear Dr Pfister,
A letter from you is always an occasion, and to-day I simply cannot go to bed without answering you, for shame would not let me sleep. Just imagine it, the intelligent things you say about the splitting up of the instincts-their polarisation-awaken
barely an echo in me and no trace of understanding. In ten days I have grown quite stupid and perfectly happy about it. But do not be angry at having written all this to me, for your letter remains with me, and the day will come when I shall again be able to understand its contents. One thing I can tell you, and that is that you again do yourself a grave injustice when you talk of the struggle with the elemental; I know that that is the hardest of all, and I know that I am-or rather was-very far from having come to an end of it. How strange it is when of two interlocutors one speaks out of libido cathexis and the other from a situation of withdrawal, just like a lover wooing a frigid beauty.
I hear that you are achieving miracles with the subjects of your investigation, and admire you for it. I also hear that one Förster is praising me to the skies (have I read correctly?) and I hear wonderful things about you.
As for what we are doing, that is to say, myself and two of the boys-the eldest is in the Tirolese mountains-it is not very impressive. We bathe in the sea, wait for the excellent meals, take half-hour trips by train to go and see interesting little Dutch towns, stop occasionally in front of beautiful pictures, and in the evening we play cards with each other. Incidentally I am spending a wicked amount of money, which is very good for my unsubdued complex. We are still alone here, as my wife is with her very frail mother in Hamburg, and my daughters are still with their aunt in Austria. We are all to meet at the Hotel Nordzee, Noordwijk, on August I, unless the light goes out in Hamburg earlier.
I hope I have not put you off sending me a few more friendly lines during the holidays.
Y