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Burghölzli-Zürich, 20 February 1908
Dear Professor Freud,
I thank you with all my heart for this token of your confidence.1 The undeserved gift of your friendship is one of the high points in my life which I cannot celebrate with big words. The reference to Fliess—surely not accidental—and your relationship with him impels me to ask you to let me enjoy your friendship not as one between equals but as that of father and son. This distance appears to me fitting and natural. Moreover it alone, so it seems to me, strikes a note that would prevent misunderstandings and enable two hard-headed people to exist alongside one another in an easy and unstrained relationship.
I have read your hysteria formulas with the greatest pleasure. In my opinion they are very successful and will remove many misunderstandings and false views. I regret very much that these theses did not come into my hands earlier, that is, before the Amsterdam lecture. They would have made my work considerably easier; as you will soon see, it bears traces of laborious formulation and polishing, yet fails to do full justice to your ideas. I hope that while reading it you will bear in mind that it was my most fervent wish to present matters in such a way as to strike the line of least resistance among the opposition. If I may say so, you ought not to bury your theses in this second-rate journal with a dubious prognosis,2 but should furnish them with examples and publish them in a more conspicuous place. This would do a great