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The Hague, 11.9.1920
Dear Professor,
Your question of whether I was serious in the contributions36 I made to the congress has preoccupied me. I shall try and make myself clear to you.
When so-called healthy people are asked to look at the objects in their sitting-room and then to close their eyes and name the objects they generally leave some things out.
When one analyses why these specific things are not consciously perceived, it turns out that they are parts of repressed complexes. So there is a censor while we are awake.
If in the case of highly visual people the repressed complexes become too intense, censorship is strengthened and the eye is rendered short-sighted. If this is still not enough, the unconscious destroys the retina with bleeding.
The process is the same in a different field, like the formation of anti-toxins to overcome toxins, or like fever and pus formation to overcome infection.
When the repressions are resolved, censorship can be reduced and retinal bleeding is stopped. Ceteris paribus: when are you coming to Baden Baden?
Yours ever Groddeck