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.
Dr. S. Ferenczi
Budapest, I. Lisznyai U. 11.
Telefon: 573-87
Budapest, August 21, 19321
Dear Professor,
After long, anguished hesitation, I have decided to renounce my candidacy for the presidency. The motives about which I have already reported to you have since been joined by the circumstance that, in the course of the exertion to structure my analyses more deeply and more effectively, I have gotten into decidedly critical and self-critical waters, which seem to necessitate in some respects not only extensions but also corrections of our practical and, in part, also our theoretical views. Now, I have the feeling that such an intellectual constitution is on no account commensurate with the dignity of a president whose main concern should be conserving and consolidating what already exists, and my inner feeling tells me that it would not even be honest to occupy this position.
I am sorry that I have come to this decision so late, at the eleventh hour, so to speak; but I had to fight through a difficult inner struggle, and that perhaps excuses the delay.
Kind regards,
Ferenczi
Freud sent this letter to Eitingon with the following remarks: “I don't doubt that he [Ferenczi] also notified you, but read, nevertheless. One will hardly be mistaken in assuming that he will go the way of Rank … What a pity! If I had only experienced one case of theoretical diversion without previous personal motivation! With Fer[enczi]., I am totally innocent, for once. The bad reception in America, in Berlin, when he was supposed to move after Abraham's death, the postponement of his election to the last Congress, were decisive. Well, then!” (August 24, 1932, Sigmund Freud Copyrights).