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I shall discuss a number of personal impressions and lines of thought which occupied my mind during and after reading this correspondence (Freud & Jung, 1974). These remarks do not pretend to be historically true or scientifically correct.
The correspondence made a great impression on me, and helped me to understand better the present situation with regard to Freud's work. The current attitude towards Freud and his work is one of uncertainty. The identification with Freud's work and his method of working is being progressively lost. Because we have become so entangled in our own feelings about Freud's personality and his work, it is difficult for us to establish the distance necessary for a more objective view of both the person and the work. This makes using him as an 'analytical instrument's very difficult.
To avoid misunderstandings as much as possible about what follows, a few personal facts about myself should be mentioned first. I did not know Freud or Jung personally. Thanks to Freud's work, my life has been saved. Through his work, I have experienced real greatness, something of major importance to me ever since I was quite young. I have been most fortunate in meeting those who brought me in contact with Freud's work, who helped me in the beginning and guided me on my way. The remarks I shall make about Freud and Jung personally, express an attempt to put myself in their position. On no account have I tried to analyse them and/or make a contribution to their biographies. Analysis is only possible where there is an analytical situation. I emphasize this because such attempts have been made, not infrequently, in the biographical literature on Freud and Jung, and in the literature on the history of psychoanalysis.
There are two reasons why I have written what follows: the request of the Associate Editor of the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis to review that correspondence, and the occasion of Jeanne Lampl-de Groot's 80th birthday. Owing to h