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20 August 1929
81 Harley Street, London
Dear Professor,
Thank you most cordially for your warm and kind letter, which gave me great pleasure. I need hardly say that I also was very happy at the smooth [progr]1 course of the Congress and share your pleasure at it. I am hopeful about the future, though I recognise that Brill will have a hard fight in New York and that we must not be disappointed if his success is not immediate. I am sure, from various indications, that we cannot rely on Oberndorf in the matter, but I should judge that his influence is very limited.
One sentence in your letter tells me that you have not yet understood my attitude. You write: Sie geben jetzt gewiss zu, dass wir Amerika nicht verlieren, wenn wir auf der Anerkennung der Laienanalyse bestehen.2 This I have never doubted, provided only that we changed our tactics. My pessimism arose from the alternate ignoring and berating of the Americans, giving them so much reason to complain. Once I induced Eitingon and the others to treat them more humanly, to approach them personålly and to treat them friend[l]ily, I was entirely hopeful that we should succeed. I kept writing the strongest letters to Brill in particular, for he is always easy to manage when one can get him face to face. This time he behaved really splendidly in every way and he deserves every praise.
Anna doubtless gave you a full account of the Congress, also of the special efforts the British Society made in its organization, but I am sure she did not relate one interesting item, namely that her Vortrag3 was certainly the most interesting and the most applauded of all; everyone was full of admiration for her gifts.
A woman, Dr. Wilson, American but of English extraction, has applied for membership of our Society, saying she was analysed by you in 1920 and has recently done control analyses with Anna. What are we to do about her? She does not want to practise in England.
I have been back at work for a week. My wife joins me in wishing yo