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6 July 1927
Semmering
Dear Jones,
My reply to your last letter was delayed because of my poor health during the last few weeks.1 The prosthesis was torturing me so much that I felt unable to meet all my obligations. It now seems to have been overcome once and for all, I hope.
The fact that Melanie Klein makes children more mature than we used to think is indeed in agreement with my ideas. But even that has its limits, and is no proof in itself. Otherwise I would have to agree a priori if it were maintained that small children speculate about epistemology. I should like to oppose Mrs. Klein on the following point: she presents the superego of children as being similarly independent as that of adults, while Anna seems to me to be right in stressing that the child's superego is still under the direct influence of its parents. On the whole I prefer to be pleased by the far-reaching agreement between the two researchers and gladly leave it to posterity to settle their differences.
Ferenczi also expressed to me his great satisfaction with the welcome he received in London and with his stay there, regretting only that he did