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.
17 November 1912
Pension White
2 Pizza dei Cavalleggieri
Firenze
Dear Professor Freud,
Many, many thanks for the kind thought that prompted yesterday's telegram. You must have guessed how much pleasure it would give me; I felt greatly honoured indeed.
Also let me thank you for your thoughtfulness in sending me the letter that arrived this morning. From your hard work you spare time to soothe my anxiousness. I have seen many such attacks, and they are terrible to
live with. From no patient have I received a more vivid impression of the terrific forces pent up in the unconscious than I have from my wife. It is as though a horrible abyss of unalterably black despair and hopelessness suddenly yawned in front of one, and one stands paralysed and helpless before an awful Abgrund [abyss]. Then it closes again, and a smiling surface appears to help one forget what one would willingly forget. I trust that you will get a look inside this volcano of emotion, and teach her how to make a better use of its fires.
I like very much the title of the new Zeitschrift, also of course the word Internationale, and am delighted that you have chosen Ferenczi and Rank. About Heller I am less enthusiastic, for some recent Korrektur-Bogen from the next number of Imago produced a distressing impression on me; I hope he will be made to change his printer. Still we have the advantage of a pliable publisher. I am very pleased that my Angst article is to appear in January,1 and have sent Ferenczi some corrections in accord with his suggestions. I felt that this difficult subject, which I know I have treated imperfectly, could not be left longer, for there are already false impressions being spread about it. I am happy that so many supporters have come in already for the Zeitschrift; the Zurich men are bound to follow. I need not tell you how completely my services are at your disposal; I only wish I were in Vienna to help a little with the organisation of the work.
I sent Rank an amusing letter that