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International Psycho-Analytical Association
30 September 1927
London
Dear Professor,
I was just contemplating writing to you about the latest news and to express my pleasure at seeing you on the Semmering when your letter arrived with its rather painful contents. It is, as you say, an enormous pity that we could not have discussed these matters together when we met. Correspondence is a very imperfect mode of communication, especially when it is a question of explaining and describing a psychological atmosphere. However, I will try to compensate for this by writing as fully as possible.
When I read your little essay1 in the Hague I expressed the opinion to Eitingon that I did not think either the tone or the content would offend Americans. To this I made a reservation of three sentences which I suggested omitting. Otherwise it was to me simply interesting, and I had no other motive for expressing the desire to see it published than the general one that applies to all your writings. The incident had not the slightest importance to me otherwise and I find it impossible to connect it with any other matter. You may, of course, be right in thinking that it would offend the Americans, but when I read it it did not produce that impression on me.
You ask what my aim is in regard to the American situation. It is nothing at all else than to restore as much harmony as possible between them and us by trying to diminish the factors that have reduced that harmony. Everything I have said and done has no other meaning than that, even though you may, of course, not agree with the particular means I advocate. I should regret their secession much more than you apparently