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Paris, August 6, 1938
My Dear Doctor Jelliffe:
We who are present at this Fifteenth International Psycho-Analytic Congress all regret very much that you, Brill, and many others who used to attend the annual Congress have had to be absent this year. All the same, as I know that you must be deeply interested in knowing what went on, I shall give you a little resume of the proceedings.
The most noteworthy thing was the spirit, the enthusiasm of the members from all over the world. I could not sufficiently admire those from Germany and Austria, who despite their dispersal, the majority to England, others in The Netherlands, France, and elsewhere, their consequent economic insecurity and difficulty in re-establishing themselves in strange lands, have found time to present exceedingly valuable clinical and theoretical papers.
The outstanding event of the Congress was the reading of Dr. Freud's long telegram of greeting, and his paper (read by Anna Freud), “Der Fortschritt in der Geistigkeit.” This, the first paper Dr. Freud had contributed to a Congress since 1929, had a really vitalizing effect on all who heard it.
You will be glad to know that publication of the Internationale Zeit-schrift für Psychoanalyse and Imago will not be given up; on the contrary, a combined issue of the two is soon to be published at The Hague. Notification of these changes will be sent to all members of the affiliated organizations. I have had a glimpse of the contents of the forthcoming number and it looks promising.
As one of the five days of the Congress was reserved for an excursion to Fontainebleau, only four days were left for the presentation of 34 papers and two symposia. I hope these symposia will be published in full, particularly the one which dealt with “The Criteria of Interpretation,” as it brought forth some valuable clinical material. The other symposium, “Ego Strength and Ego Weakness,” although concerned for the most part with theoretical material, was also well worth study. The pa