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Pápa, February 25, 1915
Dear Professor,
I fully acknowledge your supposition1 that in my changing circumstances homosexual object choice still plays the greatest role. The “commander” himself is, however—I believe—not as significant as the entire sum of homosexual impressions that one receives in the military. In any case, I want to be on my guard.
I don't think that I didn't understand your melancholia idea. Certainly, I also used this opportunity to bring my “introjection” to the place of honor again. (What you call a projection of the object shadow onto the narcissistic ego, I would rather call introjection.) But I didn't want to exhaust my judgment and my conception about your melancholia idea with the fact that I called your attention to this term. I don't believe I misunderstood you. I understand you to mean that in your view the melancholic suicide actually commits a double suicide. He kills himself (his critical ego) and also his beloved (ego), which has proved to be unworthy of him after he (the narcissistic ego) succeeded for a time in deceiving him (the critical ego).2 The occasion for the illness was effected by the disappointment in other persons who served as models for the narcissistic ego and the devaluation of whom also reveals one's own worthlessness. Melancholia is thus a case of unfortunate (unworthy) falling in love with one's self, whereas the victim of dementia is happily married to his narcissistic ego, and the paranoid (who is also not completely satisfied with himself) understands how to safeguard the appearance of happiness (from himself).
I admit, by the way, that the terms pro- and introjection should be taken cum grano salis. In every process of identification, the emanated (projected) narcissism and the object which has been drawn (introjected) into the ego meet. That must be a constant, oscillating process—pro- and introjection would only designate the predominance of one or the other direction after the completed identification. Since th