Letter from Sigmund Freud to Ernest Jones, May 7, 1933

7 May 1933
Vienna, IX. Berggasse 19

Dear Jones,

Now that the flood of receptions has receded, the first reply naturally belongs to you because there was nothing in the other letters that was equally nice and important, and because here is an opportunity to reciprocate a greeting of congratulation with one that has a better justification. Given all the uncertainty of life that we are familiar with, one may envy the parents their joy and hopes that will soon attach themselves to the new human being, whereas in the case of the elderly person one has to be content if one can more or less balance one's inevitable need for ultimate rest with the desire to enjoy the love and friendship of one's family a little longer. I believe I have discovered that the yearning for final rest is nothing basically primary but the expression of the need to free oneself from the feeling of inadequacy that assails one [den Alten], particularly in all the small tasks of life.

You are right that, compared to my seventieth birthday, my worries are no longer focused on psychoanalysis. It is secure, and I know it to be in good hands. But the future of my children and my grandchildren is bleak and endangered, and my own impotence is painful.

With cordial greetings to both parents and all the children.

Yours,

Freud