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[Budapest,]
Monday, March 25, 1918
Dear Professor,
What is interesting is the basic difference between the optimist and the pessimist. Up to the moment of the breakout of the new spring offensive I still believed in a peaceful resolution to the conflict. I couldn't imagine that one of the warring parties would assume the responsibility for the failure of his own cause. And yet it turned out differently! Now nothing
remains but to speculate about “victory” again, so that the disgusting situation finally comes to an end.
Dr. Lévy, who is, to the best of my knowledge, in Vienna today, is making diligent efforts to make the summer stay in Lomnicz possible. I hope, successfully.
Eitingon has been staying here with his wife for three days. The German consulate didn't permit Frau Eitingon to travel to Germany before they received a character reference from her by telegram. (She is a Russian.)
On this occasion I have been together with Eitingon frequently, and I am astonished at the depth and clarity of his psychoanalytic knowledge. Up till now I was still presuming philosophical ambiguities in him.
Last Sunday the Hungarian Psychoanalytic Society was newly constituted; a number of members were accepted. The first scientific gathering is supposed to take place in the beginning of April. I am planning an instructive lecture on “Freud's Metapsychological Construction.” It won't be easy.1
The autohypochondriacal studies weren't completely futile. I have come upon some mechanisms by means of which libidinal disturbance is transformed into bodily symptoms. By turning off a few such mechanisms I helped the libido onto more normal paths. In a word: I am better again, my relations with Frau G. are undisturbed, which then has a favorable effect on her. The divorce fight begins for her in a few weeks. It is questionable whether Dr. Pálos will consent to the divorce. In the meantime it is instrumental to let as little as possible be heard about her intention to remarry. I was surprised to l