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Freud wrote to Romain Rolland in March 1923: “… your name has been associated with the most precious of beautiful illusions, that of love extended to all mankind. But a great part of my life has been spent [trying to] destroy illusions of my own and those of mankind” (E. Freud, 1970, p. 346). In his correspondence with Rolland, Freud was impressed with Rolland's ability to transcend the scientific and be able to emotionally relate to others in brotherly love. This major difference between Freud and Rolland came to the fore after Freud sent Rolland a copy of The Future of an Illusion (Freud, 1927). Rolland expressed disappointment that Freud had neglected to include subjective feelings, which Rolland called: “a sensation of ‘eternity,’ a feeling as of something limitless, unbounded—as it were, ‘oceanic’” (Freud, 1930, p. 64). (See Jones, 1974, p. 594.)
Freud, the scientist, noted: “I cannot discover this ‘oceanic’ feeling in myself. It is not easy to deal scientifically with feelings (1930, p. 65)… it is very difficult for me to work with these almost intangible qualities” (1930, p. 72). Since these amorphous feelings could not be defined objectively, Freud did not investigate the intangible. He never stated that these feelings did not exist, they just were not part of his Weltanschauung. He admired