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11 October 1921
111 Harley Street, London
Dear Professor,
I sincerely hope that your cold is now better and that this time it will not leave behind its usual chronic consequences. Next time we must organize matters so that no one brings an infection with him (which is quite easy to do, with a little trouble), for it was the only blot on an otherwise most enjoyable meeting. I do not take so seriously as you seem to the two matters you mentioned, for I hope they are both temporary in nature. Sachs has evidently some infantile regression and has been behaving in Berlin, as I hear, rather like a youth visiting a Grosstadt for the first time. As I am intimate with him, I spoke to him about it. I read it as being largely a reaction from years of exile, illness and dependence; his restoration to full life, an important standing, and an unexpectedly strong financial position, has carried him a little off his feet. Before another year is over I trust he will have settled down. My only anxiety is lest his foolishness in keeping late night hours in crowded localities may affect his lungs, and on this point I wonder if you could drop a hint to him against the spes phthisica.1
For myself I am glad to be able to assure you that my health is excellent, and I live in the best hygienic circumstances (as far as an analyst can!). Your correct observations refer to a quite passing state, partly psychical. The day I joined you all I was thoroughly well and active, but that evening my cold in the head began. Partly for toxic reasons and partly from my intolerance of naso-pharyngeal irritation (erogene Zone, I suppose), this trouble always affects me psychically, in the direction of a slightly hypochondriacal withdrawal, and it is then an effort to remain gesellschaftsäfhig [sociable] and to retain the proper Objektsbesetzungen.2 This was not made easier by my lack of fluency in languages, having the unpleasant choice [being]3 between trying the attention of my audience by speaking either