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Berggasse 19,
Vienna IX,
16.2.1929
Dear Dr Pfister,
I have discussed with Anna the possibility of her attending the congress at Elsinore1 (August 8-22), but found her very loth, I think with good reason. She has to give a lecture in Frankfurt very soon, she is going with me to Berlin in March, is meeting Eitingon, Jones and Ferenczi in Paris in April, and of course cannot miss the conference at Oxford,2 so you will see that she has enough travel in store for this year and is reluctant still further to restrict the summer after a hard year's work. With Aichhorn3 it would be different, I mean it would be if I had not already spoken to him, there would be nothing to stop his travelling. But I know that he is an official who lives on a limited budget and cannot afford the expense of such a journey. Also I wonder whether you do not overestimate the importance of this congress and its attitude to analysis. In one eventuality I should myself embark on the trip to Elsinore in spite of all my infirmities, that is, if you could persuade Prince Hamlet to appear in person and confess in a lecture that he indeed suffered from the Oedipus complex, which so many people refuse to believe. But even you will not be able to manage that, so I shall have to stay at home.
My remark that the analysts of my phantasy of the future should not be priests does not sound very tolerant, I admit. But you must consider that I was referring to a very distant future. For the present I put up with doctors, so why not