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Murberg (Sasbachwalden), 12.2.1922
Dear Professor,
Dr. Rank wrote to me today that the letters to a lady-friend are being set up. I had told him for certain reasons of my own and because of certain words in your letters that I assumed that
the book would not find complete approval with the publishers. He confirms this and suggests that I make extensive cuts and advises me where to cut. I accepted this advice gratefully and am hoping that this way something workable will be arrived at.
So far all is well, but I have used the opportunity to ask Rank what the publishers think of my writings and I would also like to ask you this question. What made me bold, strange though I felt as a determined subjectivist in the midst of objectivist believers, plagued, moreover with a chronic knowledge of my ignorance, what made me bold enough to express myself in public was your personal interest in my works. Now I am not convinced that this interest applies to the letters to a lady-friend, too, and therefore I want to ask you to tell me whether I have become a nuisance to you. I do not think it is probable that I shall stop on the way I have chosen, or even deviate from it. However bizarre they may be, the letters at least clearly show the direction in which I am moving. If this direction leads more and more into darkness and corresponds with the work of your disciples I would be pleased. I know nobody else but you to whom I could put a question which is important for me, namely whether the leaders of the psychoanalytical movement approve of or at least acquiesce in what I have written or what I shall write in the same vein. Be so kind as to give me an answer to it.
With best wishes I remain, as ever, your grateful disciple
Groddeck