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12 December 1909, Vienna, IX. Berggasse 19
Dear friend,
Your letters delight me because they suggest a frenzy of satisfying work. That is as it should be. In my own case there is a little less joy and excitement, but no lack of interest. It is rare that two days pass without some new indication—if only a trifling one—that our ideas are spreading. An Italian, a Dr. Modena1 of Ancona, already known
to me from a very good paper, has just asked permission to translate one of my books into his language.
About Kaibel—I have given instructions and shall soon be able to provide you with information.
The new volume of the Jahrbuch is sure to make an impression. In the next one the Swiss must have more to say; you have been much too modest and retiring. The absence of abstracts on the Zürich literature has already been deplored. When questioned by the author, I did not withhold my praise of Binswanger's excellent and effective analysis.2 But at the same time, in an access of crankiness, I expressed my objection to his utterly superfluous mention of Ziehen3 and in general accused him of being a little too diplomatic. He has answered me very amiably. What I did not write was the general impression his piece made on me: it was as though a member of polite society had taken up with bohemians and was writing to inform his social equals that his new friends were interesting, halfway decent people, and that it might perhaps be safe to associate with them. In his concluding words of thanks to the Geheimrat there was something that irritated me. Was it because I felt that this praise was due to me, who had expressed the same sort of interest in neuroses without the flowery phrases? In short, I gave vent to a bit of my irritation and it seems to have done no harm.
Our colleague Brecher4 (in Meran) has thought up a good joke. He thought the analysis required a subtitle, which he modeled on the title of your paper:
“The Significance of the Uncle in the Destiny of the Individual”
How is B