Remarks

I understand that Dr. Freud has been hailed as the Copernicus of psychology. Also as the equivalent of Darwin in the world of revolutionary thought. To me he seems more like a Napoleon or a Hannibal of the mind, sweeping all before him with the intense penetrative subtlety and strategy of his reason.

I shall never forget my first encounter with his Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, his Totem and Tabu, and his Interpretation of Dreams. At that time and even now quite every paragraph came as a revelation to me—a strong, revealing light thrown on some of the darkest problems that haunted and troubled me and my work. And reading him has helped me in my studies of life and men. I said at that time and I repeat now that he reminded me of a conqueror who has taken a city, entered its age old hoary prisons and there generously proceeding to release from their gloomy and rusted cells the prisoners of formulae, faiths and illusions which have racked and worn man for hundreds and thousands of years. And I still think so.

The light that he has thrown on the human mind! Its vagaries and destructive delusions and their cure! It is to me at once colossal and beautiful.

But there are so many here who can interpret so much more intimately and brilliantly his amazing contributions to human thought and the mysteries of the human mind (my friend Dr. Brill here, for one), that I prefer to sit and listen. But it is a privilege and an honor for me along with so many others to be called upon to express my debt to his invaluable work. Also to wish him health and strength and length of days. Immense wisdom he has.