Letter from Ernest Jones to Sigmund Freud, March 26, 1913

26 March 1913
321 Jarvis St., Toronto

Dear Professor Freud,

I heard yesterday from my wife, for the first time since London. It was a very friendly, kind letter, loving at times, though she evaded the main question of her attitude to me. Perhaps the most striking feature was the complete absence of complaints and pessimism in regard to the treatment, which she acknowledges is doing her a great deal of good and freeing her from one symptom after the other. She evidently feels much better altogether, and on a more objective basis than before.

As to the accompanying article, when I spoke about it to Sachs (who has the copy of the photograph referred to in it) he was a little afraid it might be too shocking for Imago, but advised me to write it and submit it for your opinion. I am in hopes that he could translate it into acceptable German that would not offend too much, and am very eager to hear what you think of it. It seems to me to be an important theme, which must be discussed some time.1

The poem I enclose, which has never been published, is by a celebrated Spanish lyricist; it was given to me by a patient. Have you ever seen it? It is remarkable that the writer should feel impelled to cast such thoughts into an artistic form—a violent ambivalency, like the theme of my article.

I have three papers yet to write in the next five weeks, to be read at