Brief von Ernest Jones, 17. Januar 1927, London1

Dear Friends,

It is agreeable to note that the main news of the New York strikes a pleasant note. First comes the news, which reached me from four quarters of Europe, about Professor's highly secret visit to Berlin.2 That is, of course, a matter of intense gratification, and it has even revived my long cherished dream of seeing Professor some time in England.

I found Ferenczi's account of his doings in America extremely satisfactory and wish to congratulate him on the obvious success he is achieving. As I wrote to him recently, it makes me inclined to think that my advice not to go to America was wrong. He has evidently made a correct diagnosis of the situation there. The conflict is especially strong between the Group who wish to develop psycho-analytical knowledge intensively and so raise its standard in America and, on the other hand, the general tendency to diffuse scraps of information about it in a superficial way among society at large, including the medical profession. The Group is, as we know, hampered by its own standard not being satisfactory, as can be measured by the fact that probably not a single member can carry through a difficult analysis to the end, so that they have no nucleus round which to cluster. I have heard recently from several analysts in New York. They all welcome Ferenczi and think most highly of him, but are embarrassed by his attitude towards lay analysis which they judge to be unsuited to American conditions.

In the first days of this year appeared Numbers Eleven and Twelve of the Inter. Psycho-Analytical Library, Ferenczi's substantial volume of Collected Papers and Professor's »The Ego and the Id«. I have just heard from America that Pierce Clark, who has just separated from the New York group and whose English style is difficult to describe, has published a translation of »Hemmung, Symptom und Angst«. It is said to be »authorized«,