You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Vienna, January 11, 1930
IX., Berggasse 19
Dear friend,
My annoyance has dissipated. This reaction becomes less and less frequent in me with the motivation: it's no longer worth it. My conception of the state of affairs between us has remained the same; your letter also does not reveal any knowledge of the signs which support [it]. You are of such an honest nature that you always communicate in parapraxes what you want to conceal.
Here are the two grossest ones from your letter of January 5. I had suggested an exchange to you. Anna was supposed to come to Budapest sometime, and in exchange for that, you were supposed to pay us—or me—a visit. In your reply, you eagerly seize upon the first part of the suggestion; you don't say a word about the second one, which is the more important one to me. (Naturally, I can't repeat the wish now; forced kindnesses are, as is well known, worthless.) Then, further down in the letter, it says: “I then hope, on the occasion of my reply, also to be able to return to the impressions that I owe to Professor's1 book (Civilization) …” That sounds, naturally, as though you are writing not to me but perhaps to Anna, and reveals an alienation, the extent of which would probably surprise you yourself.
In earlier letters you passed over some jocular and tender things that I wrote, and surrendered to an “objectivity” which is “new,” at least in our relations. I understand that the analysts' behavior toward you from New York on up to Jones's low gestures at the Congress must have embittered you. If I didn't expressly support you with respect to the latter, then that happened only because I have no interest in stirring up discord, but rather [wish] to neglect it. What I don't understand in you is why this mood of yours had to be directed against me, in whose esteem you haven't gone down for an instant. If I resort to the use of signs, then I can be of the opinion that something from the practice is taking part in this. Thus, e.g., I complained facetio