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Budapest, August 21, 1914
Dear Professor,
I am still in civilian clothes and at home, but I could be called up at any moment, even though my “induction certificate” reads in such a way that I only have to report for duty when ordered to do so by telegram.
The events have had a paralyzing effect on any kind of mental activity on my part. I have felt like a foreigner with respect to the war enthusiasm—anachronistic, to my way of thinking. It seems I have had the wrong idea about the real cultural state of our society, otherwise the mental and emotional emptiness that has become manifest in me since the outbreak of the war would be inexplicable. But I think that purely personal factors have also played a role. I am gradually beginning to recover and to occupy myself mentally with ideas that are of value to us.
Two analytic hours a day are the “shabby remnants” of my practice.