Letter from Freud to Fliess, December 17, 1896

Vienna, December 17, 1896

Dear Wilhelm,

I guessed the cause of your delay [in writing] and could still notice from your letter that you had had a bad period, which I hope is now past. I am very satisfied, however, with the reception of my fantasies. I know that you put them in the right place, pursue these viewpoints further, and regard me neither as a fantasist because I report on such unfinished things, nor as a fool who for this reason believes himself to be above scrutiny and correction. These are syntheses and working hypotheses,1 which I trust we may exchange between the two of us without concern. My inner joy in suddenly being struck by an idea obviously was related not to the latent proofs but to finding a common ground for the work we share. I hope it will go so far that we can jointly build something definitive on it, and thereby blend our contributions to the point where our individual property is no longer recognizable. After all, I can collect facts only in the psychic sphere, you in the organological one; the in-between areas will require a hypothesis.

I cannot refrain from writing down for you, without proper order, some further facts and ideas. With regard to thrusts in psychic development we have the calculation based on 3, 6, 12 multiples of the gestation period; however, it may be possible to try another one that fits better with the characteristics of a process of accumulation. Namely, the summation would be calculated, not from the beginning, but starting with each breakthrough. Thus, 1T; next period from then on, 3T (total 4); next period from then on, 6T (total 10T); and so forth.