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Vienna, February 9, 1925
IX., Berggasse 19
Dear friend,
You are right; I haven't written to you for a scandalously long time. There were several reasons for that. First and foremost, that I have been spoiled by Anna's help as a secretary with typewriter, and have become unaccustomed to writing by hand. At the same time, this help is not at my disposal every day, and when it happens, as a rule, a mountain of superfluous official correspondence, mostly refusals, thank-you's, information, and the like piles up, so that the intimate is set aside. Furthermore, there comes into consideration a kind of defiance, which wants to prove that things with me aren't the same as before, although everyone strives to assure me of it. I know better. So, e.g., I have not yet at any time in my mature life had four months without any idea, without any kind of stimulus to productivity.
Also real laying claim to things plays a role. My five hours of work have already become six and a half, and in the evening there is always something to correct in the Complete Works, which Storfer is speeding along greatly. He is, by the way, active and competent as director of the Verlag, a head that never rests.
Your news that Beate Rank will take analysis with you (discretion, of course!) has interested and also pleased me very much. Then you will learn everything from her and also understand my behavior against him. It was essentially determined by the consideration that one owes a person in a deep depression. For that reason I did not require such candid admissions, the way they would be necessary for a real catharsis; I also didn't protect myself against extortion concerning his scientific advances, which are now in need of revision. He knows that now the discussion about his theory will get going from Berlin, and he is ready to learn from it. There has been no lack of “hints.” I expect only good things, without limitation, from his future position with respect to the Committee members and to you. It is