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Berggasse 19,
Vienna IX,
25.11.1928
Dear Dr Pfister,
In your otherwise delightful letter there is one point I cavil at, namely your finding something surprising and gratifying in the attitude of the International Journal (editor and staff) on the subject of the Illusion.1 Such ‘tolerance’ is no merit.
In both works which have recently reached me from the publishing house, one of which contains a reprint of your Discussion,2 I note with satisfaction what a long way we are able to go together in analysis. The rift, not in analytic, but in scientific thinking which one comes on when the subject of God and Christ is touched on I accept as one of the logically untenable but psychologically only too intelligible irrationalities of life. In general I attach no value to the ‘imitation of Christ’. In contrast to utterances as psychologically profound as ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee; arise and walk’ there are a large number of others which are conditioned exclusively by the time, psychologically impossible, useless for our lives. Besides, the above statement calls for analysis. If the sick man had asked: ‘How knowest thou that my sins are forgiven?’ the answer could only have been: ‘I, the Son of God, forgive thee’. In other words, a call for unlimited transference. And now, just suppose I said to a patient: ‘I, Professor Sigmund Freud, forgive thee thy sins’. What a fool I should make of myself. To