Letter from Sándor Ferenczi to Sigmund Freud, May 23, 1919

Internationale Psychoanalytische Vereinigung

Budapest, May 23, 1919

Dear Professor,

The rare opportunity finally to be able to send an almost uncensored letter entices me to write in the kind of detail in which I haven't been able to report to you in months.—The impediments were of an external and internal nature.—But more about them later. Above all, I want to tell you about our friend's condition; I gather from the request by telephone with respect to it that you have received the distressing information.—

Matters stand as I described them to you; according to statements by the internist and the surgeon, the fact and the nature of the increase in volume which has been ascertained are beyond a doubt. The radiotherapeutic treatment which was initiated resulted in a transitory worsening, which, however, manifested itself only in depression and nausea and ran its course in about ten days. Since then our friend has been feeling much better, is very mobile, although he remains quite remote from his former professional affairs; he does, however, occupy himself daily and with satisfaction with his newly chosen profession—the exercise of which I give him the opportunity. He helps me with his factual knowledge, his reason, and his diplomacy