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New York,
April 8, 1927. Saturday.
Dear Professor,
My wife has gone off to Los Angeles to visit her sister (five days' train ride); so I have been alone here since Tuesday, which considerably increases the feeling of emptiness.
I intend to sketch further in the Rundbrief the work that I have accomplished since. Today I would like to speak with you, Eitingon, and Fräulein Anna alone, in order to share with you, after the fact, certain impressions that I received and have been holding back.
My intention with regard to Brill was peaceful. I wanted to move him to give up his attitude of insulted innocence; but since the first day of our meeting here I became doubtful about the success of my efforts. He does, to be sure, place the stress on lay analysis—in reality it is his fatally wounded vanity that makes him so obstinate. He cannot forgive you in your statements to the effect that there is no well-trained analyst in America. The business with Frink1 has also not been forgotten, and is being bandied about against you; there is also no lack of allusions to the Rank case.—My being here is also extremely burdensome to him. The idea that someone from Europe comes over to teach the people is in and of itself an affront; he believes himself to be in possession of a monopoly, which he has well deserved through his pioneer work. In the end, one wouldn't hold that against him, if, in order to safeguard his ambition and financial interests, he had not also impeded the progress of others. Unfortunately, I have the impression that he is sooner being strengthened in his attitude by the moral support of his former rival (Jones). Jones, with regard to England, seems to aspire to similar rights of autocracy as Brill does in America; both see themselves threatened by Berlin, Vienna, Budapest.—Dr. Brill's more intimate circle of adherents consists of Stern, Oberndorf, Kardiner, and Gaston Mayer—recently—risum teneatis!2—also Frink. Of all these, Gaston Mayer seems to be the only one (besides