Letter from C. G. Jung to Sigmund Freud, July 6, 1907

Burghölzli-Zürich, 6 July 1907

Dear Professor Freud,

Would you mind my boring you with some personal experiences? I would like to tell you an instructive story about something that happened to me in Paris. There I met a German-American woman who made a pleasant impression on me—a Mrs. St.,1 aged about 35. We were together at a party for a few hours and talked about landscapes and other indifferent matters. We were offered black coffee. She declined, saying that she couldn't tolerate a mouthful of black coffee, even a sip made her feel bad the next day. I answered that this was a nervous symptom; it was merely that she couldn't tolerate black coffee at home, but when she found herself “in different circumstances,”1a she would surely tolerate it much better. Scarcely had this unfortunate phrase left my mouth than I felt enormously embarrassed, but rapidly discovered that—luckily—it had “slipped by” her. I must remark that I knew absolutely nothing about this lady's history. Soon