24 October 1912

77B

Dear Professor Freud,

Many thanks for your report on Frau F. I had already been asked by one of my colleagues in Italy1 if you had written to me about the case as the husband has alleged, but did not want to bother you with an enquiry since I was not sure how interested you were in the case. Graves’ and erotomania were diagnosed by us here as well and we also suspected ‘dementia praecox’. The transformation this woman has endured is indeed too striking to be explained without assuming a psychosis. I am grateful for your indication of a homosexual component, which is perhaps corroborated by the fact that during her earlier attacks of hysteria the patient identified herself completely with her sister-in-law. Here the heterosexual component is very much to the forefront in every way. Since the colleague who received her in my absence is about to go on leave, I shall have an opportunity of