Christmas 1922

Dear Doctor,

Are you astonished that I did not answer your interesting letter with all its information earlier, or can you understand that the date explains everything, the delay as well as making amends?

Enough, finally about to answer it I find that this is not a letter one can answer but one that should be talked about for several evenings, yet since such evenings cannot be had …

I was very sorry that you find it necessary also to avoid a psychoanalytic career. This explanation of your indeed unsuccessful paper74 and your categorising my person as a mother figure, a role which I quite obviously do not fit, show clearly that you are trying to evade the father transference. In analysis the victims are forced in their vital interest to get involved and to accept what is useful in it.