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International Psycho-Analytical Association
13 December 1937
London
Dear Professor,
I have been reading with the utmost pleasure your second Moses Essay. Your writings have always been one of my chief enjoyments in life, but I have never been more delighted than over this one. It combines the delicacy of the Gradiva, the charm of the Kästchenwahl,1 and the grandeur of Totem und Tabu.
My wife is also greatly taken with the two Essays and has claimed the honour of translating them.2
It is a far cry from the famous little Moritz (“sagt sie”)3 to the fundamental question of the genesis of religions! I have the impression that Moses himself must have belonged to the Gottmensch [God-man] type, which would go some way to excusing the mistake over the “chosen people”. You do not say anything about the ten plagues. I wonder if this is an Umkehrung [reversal] of the tortures the orthodox Egyptian priests inflicted on Amenhotep's followers, including the Jews.
There is a wonderful picture of Moses' psychology in the wilderness, particularly in regard to the ingratitude of his followers, in Stanzas IX, X