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V. Sonnenfels
July 23, 1904
IX., Berggasse 191
Dear Wilhelm:
I too believe that the late Weininger was a burglar with a key he picked up.
Herewith everything I know about it. Swoboda, who was an intimate friend of his and who had learned about bisexuality (which comes up for discussion in every treatment) from me, mentioned the word “bisexuality”—as he tells it — when he found Weininger preoccupied with sexual problems. Whereupon Weininger clapped his hand to his forehead and rushed home to write his book. I am in no position to judge whether this report is correct.
Moreover, I believe that Weininger, who allegedly killed himself out of fear of his criminal nature, could have gotten the idea of bisexuality elsewhere, because it has figured in the literature for some time. The correspondence of details can no doubt be explained as follows: once introduced to the idea, he deduced some of the inferences correctly — a larger portion no doubt incorrectly. For Swoboda maintains that he did not give him any further information; nor did he have any to give, because he did not learn from me any more than what comes up in treatment — that a strong homosexual current is found in every neurotic.
Swoboda is not, as you write, my pupil. He came to me as a severely ill patient, was given the same help and learned the same things as every other [patient]; I have no part whatsoever in his discovery, which deals rather with your ideas. I did not read his book before its publication; when I read it, I was very astonished by the kind of neurotic gratitude it displays, that is, the way he uses his findings to attack my dream theory. He simply exploited me, finally even for the purpose of finding him a publisher, which I did, and in view of his qualities as a worker, explicitly declining any responsibility for his work. I am always prepared to do such things, with the intention never to regret them later on.
At present I am finishing “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality,” in which I avoid th