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Grundlsee
10. ix. 30
Dear Arnold Zweig,
I hasten to confess to you how ashamed I am of my mistake. I had a feeling of uncertainty, it's true, as I wrote that title down, but since there were obviously unknown forces involved it is not surprising that I quickly silenced those warnings. The analysis I immediately carried out on
this Fehlleistung [slip] of mine naturally led on to delicate ground; it revealed as the disturbing factor the other Zweig, whom I knew to be engaged at this moment in Hamburg in working me into an essay1 which is to bring me into public notice alongside Mesmer and Mary Baker Eddy. During the last six months he has given me great cause for annoyance; my original strong desire for vengeance has now been completely banished into the unconscious, and so it is quite possible that I wanted to make a comparison and establish a compensation.
I only know Dr. Sch. by name. I know that he belongs to the school of Wagner-Jauregg2 and I am not at all sorry that you should have encountered in him an example of official clinical acumen. In contrast to this, I regard your non-doctrinal explanation as correct in all three thirds. The indefiniteness of the sensory perceptions stimulates the central tendency to create illusions, which are then elaborated by unconscious phantasy. The situation appears similar to that prevailing in so-called ‘crystal gazing’, concerning which Silberer3 published some remarkable observations in an early volume of our journals. I am sorry that I am far from my library at the moment. Oddly enough pictures of old Jews were prominent there too. Your experience with the Chinese faces is certainly a decisive proof and your suspicion about the old men in your family is highly probable. It may also be assumed that one's own personal expectations of death provide the driving force. The whole phenomenon will probably disappear one day, and were it not so tormenting it would provide an excellent opportunity for self-analysis. Through the gap in