IMAGINE FREUD LATE IN 1899 AWAITING PUBLICATION OF The Interpretation of Dreams. His letters reveal apprehension and excitement, the pride and pleasure of accomplishment, but sadness as well, as if he felt the loss already of what later he called his "splendid isolation." Since co-authoring Studies on Hysteria with Breuer, he had labored alone, unburdening himself during that half decade only to Fliess in Berlin and, at home, to his sister-in-law Minna. He had revised his tactics for therapy and now listened patiently for associations, or at least tried to. Those he treated tended still to be flamboyantly ill persons whose troubles had not yielded to current neurological or psychiatric care. Observing and puzzling, he had begun his systematic and often painful self-analysis, correlating it with what he learned of their turmoils. Slowly, even haltingly, he came to understand the oedipal configuration of everyone's childhood and the ongoing power of long-buried wishes. The creative ordeal was over. His discoveries would soon be public.