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Burghölzli-Zürich, 26 June 1908
Dear Professor Freud,
I thank you with all my heart for your last letter.
There have been further developments in the Gross affair. According to the latest report from Frau Dr. Gross to my chief, Gross is acting really paranoid. He declared for instance that he couldn't remain in his hotel in Zürich because he had noticed that some men on the upper floor were spying on his mental state (!); in his flat in Munich he heard a voice in the street calling “Is the doctor at home?” Then he heard knockings in the walls and on the upper floor. He torments his wife just as before. The wretched woman is probably heading for a breakdown. Despite her admirable points she is one of those people who won't listen to reason but prefer to be hurt. Apparently she wants to tie her1 whole fate to this symptomatic action.
If I can possibly manage it during the coming year I shall visit you again for a few days. I see no other way of discussing the concept of D. pr. sive schizophrenia sive paranoia that is weighing on my mind. In my opinion the negative father transference explains nothing, firstly because it is not absolute in Gross's case and secondly because in most other cases of D. pr. we have the exact opposite, as also in hysteria. The only differences, I find, are the infantile fixation, the infantile associations and the absolute but long-drawn-out incurability—the