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Klobenstein, 1 September 1911
Dear friend,
I am glad to release you as well as your dear wife, well known to me as a solver of riddles, from the darkness by informing you that my work in these last few weeks has dealt with the same theme as yours, to wit, the origin of religion. I wasn't going to speak of it for fear of confusing you. But since I can see from a first reading of your article in the Jahrbuch (I shall have to reread it; for the moment Ferenczi has made off with the volume) that my conclusions are known to you, I find, much to my relief, that there is no need for secrecy. So you too are aware that the Oedipus complex is at the root of religious feeling. Bravo! What evidence I have to contribute can be told in five minutes.
Your letter came on a beautiful happy day and has further raised my spirits. Your Brussels experiences are very amusing. It seems to me that we have had enough congresses for a while. Your kind wish that I should arrive at your place on the 15th is unfulfillable, and has been for twenty-five years.1
The papers (for the Congress) should be no great problem. I have prodded Ferenczi, who will present something about homosexuality. Rank has just written to me for encouragement to speak on his “Motif of Nudity in Antiquity.”2 He has received it. You might easily persuade Putnam, whom you will be seeing before you see me, to tell us something about his philosophical postulates and misgivings, which he has spoken of in a memorandum to me.3 To be sure, I don't