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Vienna, February 7, 1929
IX., Berggasse 19
Dear friend,
The pension animal who will come to you, Mr. William Blumenthal, was just with me to get a recommendation to you. But he was afraid that I will draw something from my prejudices toward him which will turn you against him, and therefore he wanted—in all politeness—to prescribe what should be written in the recommendation: I refused and said that he should only turn to you on his own; incidentally, you are not the kind of man who makes judgments about patients from others.
So, he will appear before you on the 20th of the month. You might know him from the Semmering, and from occasional remarks from me; our last conversation about him and today's letter, naturally, did not take place.
He doesn't know what a favorable situation he is getting into. The contempt that I showed for him on account of his conceited asininity can make him more pliable toward someone else, and in you, I know, he will encounter fearless therapeutic ambition. But I don't want to refrain from warning you about his dishonesty, artistry in dissimulation, and his arrogance. He may be quite well behaved for a while; he seems to be very much intimidated. It seems impossible to me to awaken in him a spark of warm feeling for another.