You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Vienna, April 23, 1915
IX., Berggasse 19
Dear friend,
Since you won't get off the comparison with Goethe, I myself can contribute something more to it, both positive and negative. Of the first kind, my stays in Karlsbad and my respect for Schiller, whom I consider to be one of the most exalted personalities of the German nation; of the latter, my relation to tobacco, which Goethe abhorred terribly, whereas I actually know of no other apology for Columbus's atrocity. On the whole, greatness doesn't weigh heavily upon me.
Your announced intention to come to Vienna promises to satisfy a pent-up need. I have unbelievably little to do. Pfister was already here, for lunch with us alone, in the evening with Rank and Sachs. He is a good fellow and will stay with us. His presence convinced the others what an enormous role simple ignorance played in the break with the Swiss. By the way, Wednesday the 28th is a Society evening, a lecture by Sachs about Schiller's Apparitionist.1 I am writing this to you in order to influence you in one or the other direction.
The series “Instincts, Repression, Unconscious”2 is now finished. The first piece already typeset by the Zeitschrift and in your hands, both of the others in the publisher's portfolio. The introduction, “Instincts,” is not very enticing, to be sure, but the subsequent texts prove very fruitful. A fourth paper is needed, to compare the dream with dementia praecox;3 it is also already drafted. It goes with the metapsychology. The Zeitschrift is now taken care of for a whole year, as far as I am concerned. Vivant sequentes!4
The summer is a dark secret. My wife is in Hamburg and will perhaps make some arrangement with Sophie, since Max is expecting to be called up any day. Incidentally, we don't now know exactly whether we are confronting peace with Russia or war with Italy. There must be a lot