Letter from Ernest Jones to Sigmund Freud, July 30, 1912

30 July 1912
13 Princes St., Cavendish Sq.
London

Dear Professor Freud,

Thank you for your letter, which arrived safely. My wife was delayed a week in Bonn owing to some severe gastro-intestinal poisoning (supposed to be due to decomposition of the morphia), but got here two days ago quite recovered. She travelled alone, the first night she has been alone for 2 1/2 years, and was very happy to see London. The day she arrived she did not take her usual morning dose of morphia till 5 p.m., and then only half of it. Altogether she has reduced the daily dose by one fifth, which is already substantial. We are having a very happy time, seing old friends and so on.

I have been sounding the situation in London and am still optimistic about it. Last night I spent a pleasant evening with Hart. Circumstances have for the moment made him less jealous of my competition. He has just been made Superintendent of a private asylum in London,1 with permission and time to do private practice. He is marrying in a month's time. He seems more reasonable about the respectability question, perhaps because he is now permanently settled as to position, and remarked that to be respectable in psychopathology means to make no progress. In the past year he has been very occupied with taking higher examinations, routine work, etc., and has done practically no reading. He says that he cannot call himself a frank adherent of the ψα movement, but is enormously impressed by it, and definitely means to practice it openly with his private patients. He accepts the principles but does not yet identify himself with the cause. Perhaps he will do that later, but I am afraid he will find it hard to make any personal sacrifices for an interest outside