Letter from Sigmund Freud to Sándor Ferenczi, October 11, 1918

Vienna, October 11, 1918
IX., Berggasse 19

Dear friend,

Your recommendation to hand over 10,000 crowns to Dr. Sachs as a contribution to the costs of his illness has my unqualified assent. When I first spoke to Freund again in Budapest, I put forth to him the question as to whether the support of individuals who are valuable to ΨA shouldn't be one of the tasks of the fund, and he answered in the affirmative. I didn't know at the time that the first case was so near.

I am not clear about the modalities of the withdrawal, inasmuch as the fund doesn't exist yet and its disposal hasn't been transferred to me yet. I think we should let Freund decide this question. Perhaps it is better to take the amount out of capital; the pace of the founding of the publishing house should on no account be slackened by this donation, for that is urgent. As I already wrote to you, Heller has been fully apprised of the idea of giving up both journals. Now there shouldn't be any great delay on our part. Heller also recently indicated that the central paper office here may not permit paper for Imago to be exported to Hungary.

I strongly approve of your tenacity in being content with only one or two proven assistants in the Ψα ward. If they foist Gonda1 or some other outside person on you, you are lost; you shouldn't back down. Knowledge of Hungarian will hardly be able to be dispensed with in Budapest. The best thing would be Hollós and Eitingon!

Practice here still arid, uninteresting. The stifling tension, with which everyone is awaiting the imminent disintegration of the State of Austria, is perhaps unfavorable. I can't suppress my satisfaction over this outcome.

Anna, Ernst, Mathilde are in the process of recovering from their Spanish [flus]. Oli suffered from it as well;2 there is no news from Martin.

Kind regards,

Freud

Yesterday there was a request for a Danish translation of the Five Lectures.3