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Budapest, February 7, 1921
Dear Professor, The specific reason for my letter of today is as follows: Yesterday, a painter whom I know telephoned me with the news that some Englishmen would like to speak to me about matters of psychoanalysis, that is to say, to make my acquaintance. They are invited to tea with him, and might I also come. I found there the president of the Danube Commission, Admiral Troubridge,1 with his son, and was already hoping for a lucrative analysis
—but it turned out that the ones actually interested are two ladies,2 i.) an analysis begun by a pupil of Jung's, whose healthy human intellect was not able to deal with the Jungian conception of symbolism, and 2.) a Miss Skinner, a beginning student of philosophy, who is supposedly interested only from a scientific point of view. After a one-and-a-half-hour colloquium, in which she was the examiner and I the examined, she declared herself no. 1) very relieved and freed of many doubts, no. 2) that she would like to be analyzed by me, especially since, after a short stay in Vienna, she will come back to Budapest. She vehemently repulsed my objection that my English was insufficient for that.—Nevertheless, she asked me also to give her a recommendation to take along to Vienna to you, which I did. It would not be unpleasant for me if you could send this student back to me, since this would be the only chance to improve my finances. In any case, I ask you for a report as to whether you shouldn't rather keep her yourself—and, if not, a hint as to how high a fee I could charge her per hour.
When I get a chance I will tell you about the difficult and changeable vicissitudes of the character analysis with Sokolnicka (for it has to do with such). If one confronts unpleasant character traits from the same standpoint that is as affect-free as possible, as one does with neurotic symptoms, then the analysis of them can yield much that is of interest—one can learn very much about the psychology of the ego. My “we