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Karlsbad, August 12, 1912
Dear friend,
Thank you kindly for your news. A sentence from my reading of Voltaire has stayed in my memory:
En cas de doute abstiens-toi.1
Regarding the near future, I just want to inform you that I have had Jones reserve lodgings for the both of us, as he offered to do. Further, I have invited Rank to share the week in London with us.2 It is questionable whether he will accept, since he has worries about examinations. I don't know anything about Brill. We will probably be alone on the trip to Scotland and the return.
From the realm of science, ΨA allows us to recognize two primal stages of human organization: the father horde and the brother clan. The latter develops the first religion, totemism, which is, however, retrospective obedience [nachträglicher Gehorsam]3 to the commandments from the first phase. Thus, the father was overcome first, but since the united brothers gradually became fathers themselves, he returned, probably this time as a god.4
I won't write you again from here. We are leaving Wednesday morning. The stay has done us a world of good. I am not tired of being lazy by a long shot. The Emdens left today, and they also want us to stay with them for a day in The Hague.
Best regards also to Frau G.
Yours,
Freud