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20 November 1926
Vienna, IX. Berggasse 19
Dear Jones,
So, is it really twenty years since you joined the cause? You have really made the cause quite your own, for you have achieved everything that
could be made of it: a society, a journal, and an institute. What you have meant to it may be left for historians to ascertain. I certainly expect that you can accomplish even more, once the many activities which you still have to contend with have been relieved by a smooth routine. Then you will find the leisure time in which to use your accumulated experience to do more for your colleagues and the new generation.
We may well be satisfied with each other. I myself have the impression that you sometimes overestimate the importance of the disagreements (“dissensions”)1 that occurred also between us. Indeed, it is difficult to achieve complete satisfaction with one another; we all find something missing in the other, become somewhat critical. You yourself have pointed out that even Abraham and I had certain differences—it is much the same as with one's wife and children. Only speechmakers at funerals deny such traces of reality; the living may believe that such deviations from the notion of an ideal do not spoil their enjoyment of reality.
You will be surprised to discover the reason why my correspondence with you is hindered. It is a classic example of the petty restrictions to which our nature is subject. I find it very difficult to write German in Latin script, as I am doing today. All facility—inspiration is reserved for greater matters—deserts me at once. But you have often told me that you cannot read Gothic script, thus leaving me with only two means of communication, both of which interfere with one's intimacy: either to dictate a letter to Anna on the typewriter or to use my clumsy English.—
As a result of your reminder, I have reread your paper on the superego2 and confirmed my first impression. All the obscurities and difficulties that you point out really do exist