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Vienna, November 11, 1914
IX., Berggasse 19
Dear friend,
I am writing you again today because I am busy with your reviews and because in my solitude I am glad to be able to write a complete letter.
Last time I told you every day something crumbles away. Yesterday I received news of the death of my eldest brother.1 He was, to be sure, 81 years old, but the information says: railway accident. I think he would not have withstood the war; he was very full of life and got [to be] exactly as old as our father. Today I lamented the sinking of the Emden,2 to which we were really attached.—
About your reviews, I am of the opinion that Kollarits3 didn't deserve such consideration ad personam,4 but it is comprehensible if in times like these one feels the temptation to show something classical in an example, so that the reader becomes a learner. The first critique is also excellent in every respect. As to the second, on the Interpretation of Dreams, I have a number of things to take exception to. The differences are not emphasized strongly enough; of the two main arguments, one is missing, namely, that which is fear to the one system is wish to the other, which is precisely the one in question. The second argument is mentioned, that of the punishment dream (masochistic consciousness of guilt). In Kollarits's example of the boxing of the ears, you place too much value on the fact that someone else is the recipient; you can't look for the wish fulfillment there; it is a punishment dream with mitigation by means of displacement. In the example