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Burghölzli-Zürich, 12 July 1908
Dear Professor Freud,
Again I have had to keep you waiting a long time for my answer. I am not a free agent and always have to adjust my decisions to the wishes of half a dozen other people. That takes time.
In August1 my chief has four weeks leave, during which time I shall naturally be chained to the Clinic. In September (1-15) I go on holiday. On the 16th I shall be home again until the 28th, when my military service begins, lasting until the end of October. So if you cared to spend a few days with us between the 16th and the 28th I would be very happy. I should like to spend the miserably short holiday I have in lazy solitude; God knows I need it. This summer term has been gruelling. If I am back in the Clinic at the end of September, I hope my chief will relieve me of most of my duties so that I can devote all my time to you.
Please forgive me for not going further into your work plans in my last letter. I simply took them as settled. Of course I agree with your putting the “Phobia” in the first number and the “Aphorisms on Obsessional Neurosis” in the second. On the other hand I hope you won't mind a mild protest at your lavishing your ideas and articles on Hirschfeld or Marcuse or even Moll. Naturally I won't presume to stop you, since I don't know your reasons. Your ideas are difficult enough for the layman to understand as it is, but they all have a continuity of logical development, and I think it ill advised to scatter them at random on good and stony ground alike. Some fall by the wayside, and the people tread them underfoot; some fall among thorns, and the thorns choke them;2 whereas I hope the Jahrbücher will gather up the scattered seeds and so give a faithful picture of the edifice you have built.
I should be grateful if you could let me have your contribution to the first number by the beginning of the winter. I hope Binswanger's will also be finished by then, as well as the abstracts.
All my available time last week w