Letter from Sigmund Freud to Sándor Ferenczi, December 22, 1916

Vienna, December 22, 1916
IX., Berggasse 19

Dear friend,

I am sending you the enclosed communication with the request, first, to give me information about “Harmonia”1 yourself and, second, your opinion about the matter itself. I don't rave about such productions and don't feel at all so easygoing about them, but I can be talked into it, especially since I dismissed my last [female] patient today and have a long vacation ahead of me. Obviously, one can postpone the lecture itself into the next few months. I have consoled Harmonia with the prospect of a speedy reply.

On closer consideration I realize that Wilson's peace initiative,2 announced today, which should be taken more seriously, has had its share in bringing about a more life-affirming mood on my part.

You should have received the dream volume of the Lectures in the meantime. Today I was in the university library to order the Lamarck3 for myself. I cannot stay completely idle, and our project, “Lamarck and Ψ A,” suddenly came to mind as hopeful and rich in content. I am predicting all kinds of things there and am actually already convinced about it. It is hard for me to read so much that lies more distant from me, but it will perhaps still work ad majorem dei gloriam,4 in honor of our painfully revered science. I would only like to have the assurance from you that you will maintain your collaboration and do something serious in the near future, even though you don't have as much free time as I. For that reason you seem to me to be just as urgently in need of a diversion.

Martin is here with the cadre, and a frequent guest.5 Oli's reports from Cracow sound very gratifying. The little fellow6 is a lot of fun; he is a very respectable member of the family.

I greet you kindly in expectation of your reply.

Yours,

Freud