Letter from Sigmund Freud to Sándor Ferenczi, June 7, 1910

Vienna, June 7, 1910
IX., Berggasse 19

Dear friend,

Our letters have crossed each other. Don't worry about Leonardo. For a long time now I have been writing only for the small circle that enlarges daily, and if the others didn't get angry over Leonardo, I would have gone astray in my judgment about him. It is also a matter of indifference what these others are now saying. We will all get more thanks and posthumous fame from ΨA than is good for us at present, while we are at work.

Our colleagues seem to like Leonardo. Pfister has become a visionary through him and sees the outline of a vulture in the white cloth around the body of Mary1 (test: Where is the cat?)2 and gets stuck with the correspondence of Ψα (Geier) [vulture] and Gyps [gypsum]. The latter is, unfortunately, superfluous; the former seems possible to me. Pfister has become perspicacious through his homologous mother complex.

So you have direct news from Brill. I expect you in Vienna when he is there; we can talk about the trip then. My mood is good in spite of the heat; I hope to have made my large intestine travelworthy by that time.

You now seem to be on the way to a great discovery if you can show that hypochondria is a fermentation product of anal erotism; in other words, that it relates to hypochondria in a similar way as does sadism to obsessional neurosis. If you yourself seem to be paralyzed in your energy by admiration, I will see to it that you feel yourself to be part of a power3 again.

Kindest regards,

Freud