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2 June 1910
31M
[Alphonse Maeder to Freud]
Dear Professor,
Herr v. T. leaves for Vienna tomorrow. Allow me to bring you up to date about him. The awakening interest in intellectual matters mentioned in my last report has grown much stronger in recent weeks. Music also attracts him again, he wants to hear Wagner in Vienna next week; he will make a start at home with light philosophical works. A glance at the outside world recently let him discover some of the beauty of our lake. Physically he has got decidedly stronger, [even] if he has put on only about three pounds. On the credit side I would also say that he grumbles much less and spontaneously complains less than he did at the beginning.
The two basic characteristics remain which are not good for the prognosis; his isolation in ‘la tour d'ivoire’ and his stubbornness. He has established contact with nobody but me. Our comfortable rapport was good, but I could have no influence on him with important points if I was of a different opinion. Towards the other people he would rather present himself as slightly hostile, it is very much like a persecution in nuce1 (the brother with his financial control over the patient's spending on philanthropic things, and you yourself, Professor, with your predominance in the sexual field, are both included here). His stubbornness shows itself quite noticeably in the aggravated lack of adaptability and the intransigence. I think that the influences of his milieu upon his ego-feelings have worked strongly in recent years. He still remains undecided about the question of channelling his libido, after receiving your letter he was excited, spoke of total sublimation while going back to Spinoza and Kant. He has certainly moved on a bit since then. At least he sees the possibility of a