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Budapest, July 17, 1908
VII., Erzsébet-körút 54
Dear Professor,
Many thanks for your efforts in the interests of my work. My next project will be a commentary on Ibsen's works in the light of their psychology. It is astounding how much he has anticipated. The Lady from the Sea,1 for example, could be compared with the psychoanalytic treatment of an obsessional idea.2 The other works are also full of apt presentiments and allusions. Before I became acquainted with your work I never fully understood Ibsen, and I don't completely understand his previous commentators even now. To be sure, he didn't even understand himself completely. I am thinking of arriving in Berchtesgaden on August 25. I ask you to concern yourself with lodging only if you think it is necessary to make advance reservations. I don't want to burden you unnecessarily.
Your gratefully obedient
Dr. Ferenczi
In Lady from the Sea> (1888), the heroine Ellida's husband, Dr. Wangel, helps her come to grips with her past and her fantasies. See also letter 114.
Ferenczi never did write a paper about Ibsen's works, but he did take up the idea he mentions here several times, for example in “Psychoanalyse und Suggestion” [Suggestion and Psychoanalysis] (1911, 94; Unbewusstes, pp. 198f; F.C., p. 59), where he also briefly recapitulates the action of Ibsen's play.