Letter from Sigmund Freud to Oskar Pfister, September 14, 1926

Semmering, 14.9.1926

Dear Dr Pfister,

I am glad that on the whole you like my pamphlet. But do not judge it as an objective, scientific piece; it is a piece of polemics written for a special occasion. Otherwise I should certainly not have omitted the application of analysis to the cure of souls. I considered doing so, but in Catholic Austria the idea of a ‘churchman's' working with analysis is totally inconceivable, and I did not wish further to complicate the issue. Besides, my argument would not have benefited; the answer would have been that, if these spiritual gentlemen wished to use analysis, that was no affair of ours, they should apply for permission to their bishop. I am well aware that Catholic analysis exists in Germany, but it would hardly be possible in Austria.

In regard to your remark about the latency period, let me say that the setting aside of sexuality is often only partial, with the result that a certain amount of activity is maintained. That is very frequent, and there are also plenty of cases with which one would never have hit on the idea of a latency period at all. When one considers the events of the early period, a relative residue of sexual activity is nearly always to be detected. The opposite objection, that in savages there is no latency period, the consequence of which would be that the latter was not innate but a product of civilisation, seems to me to be interesting. I do not believe it to be correct, but the question can be settled only by new and extensive investigations (Malinowski).1

I am spending an agreeable time here—so far as my local torment permits—and I propose to prolong it to the end of the month. To-morrow I am sending A.B., who has been here since August I, on holiday until October I. I must tell you about him, there have been a good many changes in his case. His intolerableness has been successfully overcome, I have actually grown fond of him, and he seems to reciprocate this.