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30 December 1908, Vienna, IX. Berggasse 19
Dear friend,
First a resounding prosit for the year 1909, which looks so promising for you and for our cause. Special good wishes to your little son, who is now embarking on psychic labours that we still have no conception of. Many thanks for your thoughtful Christmas present, which by association has recalled to my mind the splendid days in Burghölzli.1 I have it all to myself—an unusual occurrence—the rest of the family has rejected it with indignation. I like it much better than the sample I tasted at your house. I am amazed to hear that you knew nothing about Abraham.2 I gather, then, that he has not written to you that he is withdrawing the “other” abstracts and reiterating his request for the publication of his review of my work in the first number? His letter to me sounded as if he had already written to you. But I can only rejoice that he has thought better of it; since he is so completely wrong, you will find it easier to forgive him now than last time. Just pretend to know nothing. Take my word for it that I gave him a good dressing down. Too bad, too bad.
Now finally I come to the news that I have been invited by Clark University, Worcester, Mass., Pres. Stanley Hall,3 to deliver four to six lectures in the first week of July. They expect my lectures to give a mighty impetus to the development of psychotherapy over there. The occasion: the twentieth (!) anniversary of the founding of the university. I have declined without even consulting you or anyone else, the crucial reason being that I should have had to stop work 24 weeks