Letter from Freud to Fliess, May 25, 1899

Vienna, May 25, 1899
IX., Berggasse 19

Dear Wilhelm,

A contented letter from you containing evidence of your being well and the promise that you will attempt a first presentation of your earthshaking formulas were a long-missed pleasure and a good omen for the approaching season, in which we shall have to exchange letters for an indeterminate period of time. I still carry in my pocket the instructions on how to handle the “wine of the gods,” so that I can faithfully execute them when the time comes.

And now my news. On the Sunday before Whitsun — 6 weeks, 28 + ²⁸/₂ days, since the migraine in Innsbruck — the mild depression prevailing in the intervening period (including a new migraine) really stopped, suddenly and for no reason, and gave way to an unfounded sense of well-being. Business is in a steady decline, low enough to justify Oscar's blackest apprehensions; three new contacts have already been broken off; a fourth, of no more value, is about to do the same; I foresee all sorts of difficulties, yet remain in the best of spirits. On the day on which things turned, we (that is, Minna and I) were invited by Oscar and Mela. We liked your friend Dernburg very much and let our wrath be aroused by his tolerant evaluation of our Lueger.1 Your first brother-in-law, Oscar, and I treated him badly on account of this. D. wanted to persuade us that here all is very well, replete with the best “possibilities,” and that we are unfair in complaining so bitterly. I still think we know better. Mela's menu unfortunately was sparse, cauliflower and chicken, both of which I detest with all my heart; not one of the refreshing new things of the season; my womenfolk always maintain that she has a distinct inclination to parsimony when she entertains. Since then, though, I relish life again. I used the week before Whitsun to write the essay on “Screen Memories,”2 which I am sending off to Jena today. While producing it, I liked it immensely — which does not augur well for its future fate.