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[Imago Letter Heading]
[Vienna] 2.3.1913
Dear Frau Andreas
I am very sorry that I have to answer your letter in writing, i.e., that you were not at my lecture on Saturday.16 I was thus deprived of my point of fixation and spoke uncertainly. Fortunately it was the last lecture.
And you guessed aright that my enquiry on Wednesday meant something else. I had just learnt that Ferenczi was coming to Vienna on Saturday evening, so that the hours when I generally enjoy having you as a listener would have to be devoted to a meeting of the editorial board. There was no more dissemblance about it than that.
You spoil people like me, who are continually tempted to complain about mankind, by a degree of understanding which extends beyond what has been said, so that one then becomes apprehensive of being spoilt too much, lest one should have to suffer subsequent deprivation. But it would be wiser if one could bring oneself to enjoy the present, without thinking of the inevitable consequences. So I hope to see and talk with you often before your departure. Meanwhile till Wednesday?17
Yours sincerely,
Freud
On that day, 1 March, Freud held his concluding lecture on ‘The Theme of the Three Caskets’ ( S.E. XII). Starting out from the choice of the suitors between the three caskets in The Merchant of Venice, he pursued this motive in poetry, fairy tales and sagas; diary entry of 2 March 1913: ‘Could not go to Freud's concluding lecture in the evening. Ferenczi present, Freud on the three caskets. Tausk will tell me about it on Sunday.’
5 March: ‘Freud-discussion with Helene Stöcker, enjoyable debate.’ Cp. entry in Freud Journal.