Letter from Freud to Fliess, December 20, 1898

December 20, 1898

Dear Wilhelm,

I hope you will call me at noon on Sunday and tell me when you will be free. What I would like best is, of course, if the two of us could get away from Vienna, even if only half an hour from here (Baden). Warned by various indications, however, I do not dare to propose a firm “program.” Your head, your preferences, and consideration for your family will be decisive. My wife hopes to see you both here on Wednesday evening for a small party. I am more modest; all I ask is that you be free on Monday, because on Tuesday and so forth I suppose I have to put on the yoke again, to earn the 70 florins which are now to be had every day.

Rarely have three months of separation seemed as long to me as these last ones. You write nothing about the state of your health, apparently so as not to hurt me. There I am in the habit of being less considerate.

I shall be glad to hear of your demolition and reconstruction plans; mine have indeed become more modest. All sorts of things displease me in life. The zoon politikon [political animal] is unsatisfied. Vienna stinks to high heaven and I cannot bear the stench. It is silly that all these things occur to me when at last I once again have an occasion to rejoice.

My little trifle, “The Painting by Signorelli” [published as “The Psychical Mechanism of Forgetfulness”], has appeared in print, though not yet as a reprint.1

I have not discovered in myself any further inclination to work.

You will get one of Martin's new poems to May, beginning with lines that really can be sung: