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, February 12, 1900
IX., Berggasse 19
Dear Wilhelm,
If I am restraining my need for a more frequent exchange of ideas with you just now, it is to spare you my complaints while you are affected by your mother's continuing illness. Wishes for her improvement no doubt are superfluous; I should like to be able to help you, if it were possible to be of any help in these matters. It is doubtless a form of aging, but certainly no less painful for this reason. At the same time the three grandchildren are blossoming.
I come close to reproaching myself for writing to you only about myself. Much that could be said cannot be put in writing.
My practice has picked up during the past week. The period in which I saw only one patient in five consulting hours (in all five) seems to be over. Today I even started a new case, though of course I do not know whether it will last. Today, too, my depression has lifted. If I could only tell you what constant changes my thoughts undergo in relation to my work, that is, what errors I still find to correct, and how difficult it all is, you would probably make allowances for my neurotic swings of mood,1 especially if you also took into account my financial worries.
Minna left Saturday evening for Hamburg to visit her mother, who will turn seventy this year and who at the moment is in bed with influenza. She plans to stay away for three weeks; if the old lady is well, the last week is reserved for Berlin. Naturally, she will not fail to visit you, so that she can report to me on the children and give you my cordial greetings. Martha is having a very good time of it, as are the children, who really are developing well. My brother, whose renown as an expert has grown steadily and who is being called upon by the government to act as a confidential consultant in all official investigations and the like, is nevertheless beginning to realize that all of it is just exploitation. He will not even get the title of professor, which he has earned by lectur