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British Psycho-Analytical Society
19 September 1925
London
Dear Professor,
We all greatly missed you at Homburg, but you could not have given us better consolation for your absence than the one you did in the form of that charming paper which Anna read beautifully.1 Had I not expected to see you at Homburg I would not have arranged my elaborate holiday in the way I did, but afterwards the arrangements were so complicated that I could not break off in the middle. So I shall have to postpone the pleasure of seeing you until Christmas or Easter. We had a pleasant holiday, full of rich experiences.
You will want to know my impressions of the Congress. Socially it was a great success and proved once more the enormous advantage of personal contact among workers in different countries. Scientifically perhaps it was not up to standard, largely owing to a considerable number of feeble contributions from the Anglo-Saxon countries, a feature which I will do my best to remedy by the next Congress. I thought the best papers were by Alexander2 and Reik.3 Ferenczi was in a slightly ambiguous position, trying against his will to modify his former extreme attitude as regards active therapy. (By the way, I wish someone would invent a more descriptive word for this procedure.)4 He looked very well and young and we were all delighted to see him and enjoyed his company. Poor Abraham was evidently suffering still, but in spite of his difficulties he performed his duties with excellent judgement and skill.
Sachs also made a good impression and it is evident that continued co-operation with the Berlin group has greatly improved him. The main credit for the Congress should, I think, fall to Eitingon who was in every way a great success.5 He is developing his personality more freely and is in every way exceedingly valuable. Rank, I am sorry to say, did not make a very good impression. His paper6 was very confused and he is evidently again in a state of chronic hypo-mania, evolving with his old