Letter from Sigmund Freud to Sándor Ferenczi, April 17, 1923

Vienna, April 17, 1923
IX., Berggasse 19

Dear friend,

I vigorously regret that I am going without the advantage of your further remarks. Storfer, seized by blind ambition, has speeded up the printing so much that the thing will already be printed this week. I hardly got a word in myself.—

Now I am in my well-known depression after all the proofreading and swear never again to get onto such slippery ice. It seems to me that the curve has sunk steeply since the “Beyond.”1 It was still rich in thought and nicely written, Group Psychology2 touches on the banal, and this “Id” is downright unclear, artificially put together, and terrible in its diction. So, I also didn't feel the enlightenment from the second sheet that you praise. Except for the basic idea of the “id” and the apercu of the origin of morality, actually everything in this book displeases me.

Your remarks take the “id” too seriously; for that reason I don't dare respond to you. Your doubt about whether one can say “all” perceptions from outside are cs. touches on a problem that annoyed me only last night. The passage in question has, by the way, been changed somewhat.

Your inference about identification seems to me to be correct, but too sharp.

I am longing for the summer vacation, am also gradually unlearning cheerfulness.

On the tenth of the month, in Berlin, Oli married the girl who turned him down two years ago. My wife and Martin were at the wedding as a delegation and brought with them very friendly impressions. Unfortunately, the couple has no more than one room (in Duisburg) at their disposal. Much good mood and modesty will be demanded of the young woman.

My little grandson here3 is the most ingenious child of this age (four years) that I have ever seen. He is also correspondingly thin and sickly, nothing but eyes, hair, and bones.

In your next letter I also hope to hear something personal from you and Frau Gisela.