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Vienna, November 16, 1916
IX., Berggasse 19
Dear friend,
You know that I consider your attempt at analysis finished,—finished, not terminated, but rather broken off because of unfavorable circumstances. If you were still able to make your decision dependent on the continuation of the analysis, then you would have forced it into the service of delay, which shouldn't be.
With that I think I have regained my freedom to tell you what you should have been able to hear earlier if you had not come into analysis, namely, that I have no opinion of the whole matter and assess your hesitation (last point in time: Reichenau, May 15)1 as proof that nothing will come of it. Now, since you react to Frau G.'s refusal with a renewal of your being sick, I am all the more sure that the matter has long since been exhausted and cannot be redressed. I mean, you shouldn't make an effort to prove that you do, in fact, want to. I wouldn't believe it of you, and Frau G. is, in my estimation, acting correctly, if, out of everything that has gone before, she draws the conclusion that she shouldn't go along. Naturally I have never done the slightest thing to influence her; I have only foreseen that she would act that way.
I saw Ignotus and promised him an essay for his journal, which I will begin soon.2 Tomorrow morning we are expecting Sophie with the child;3 then there will be more peace again. I have come to an end with the lectures. My practice has since increased, even though there are not a lot of long-term cases. It was foreseeable that not all Hungarians have time to come to Vienna for treatment. For that reason I didn't react to the report of your efforts in the letter before last.
If the war continues indefinitely this way, everything else loses its meaning.
There is good news from the boys. Oli will have a few free days to spend here before he reports for duty on December 1.4 Rank again seems very depressed in Cracow, perhaps materially very stressed. It is really too bad about him.
I greet