You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Vienna, November 8, 1895
Dearest Wilhelm,
Your long letters prove to me that you are well. May both — symptom and cause — continue without interruption. I (so as not to forget about it and not to have to talk about it again) have been feeling incomparably better in the last two weeks. I have not been able to maintain complete abstinence; under my load of theoretical and practical worries the increase in psychic hyperesthesia has become unbearable. Otherwise I am following the prescription, and overindulged out of joy only on the day of Lueger's nonconfirmation [as mayor of Vienna].
From now on my letters will lose much of their content. I have packed up the psychological manuscripts and thrown them into a drawer, where they shall slumber until 1896. This came about in the following way. At first I put psychology aside in order to make room for infantile paralyses, which must be finished before 1896. Next I began to write about migraine. The first points I discussed led me to an insight which again reminded me of the topic I had put aside and which would have required a lot of revision. At that moment I rebelled against my tyrant. I felt overworked, irritated, confused, and incapable of mastering it all. So I threw everything away. I now regret that on the basis of these pages you should attempt to form an opinion that would justify my cry of joy at my victory, which must indeed be difficult for you. Don't struggle with it any longer. I hope that in two months' time I shall be able to clarify the whole thing. The clinical solution of hysteria, however, still stands; it is appealing and simple. Perhaps I shall pull myself together and put it down for you soon.
November 10. Along with this I am returning the case histories regarding nose and sex. I need not tell you that I fully agree with your intent. This time you will find I have added little — a few red marks. I hope there will be more when I read the theoretical part. Your sexual-chemical hypotheses really fascinated