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.
17 December 1915
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
109F
Prof. Dr. Freud
Dear Dr. Binswanger,
I am answering your kind letter by return of post, gratified by your interest in my news even in these times.
Well, my two sons were for a time involved in heavy fighting, but are both still alive, uninjured, decorated, and at present down south in the mountains. Last month the older one spent a ten-day leave with us, gladdening us with his appearance and good spirits.1 My son-in-law2 from Hamburg is now in training as a gunner. My middle son, the engineer, who is working on the construction of a tunnel of strategic importance,3 is coming to Vienna tomorrow and a day later will take his bride back with him.4
Our Society still meets, although not so often,5 having shed all unreliable elements. The number of those who can contribute anything to the literature is naturally small, since they are all helping with the war in one way or another. The publisher has promised continued publication of our Zeitschrift and of Imago. It is, of course, impossible to keep to schedules. Rank should be going to Kracow soon; Sachs joined up but was discharged as unfit for service.6
I do not wish to paint too rosy a picture of my own position, but there has been an unmistakable improvement in my practice during this second year of the war, and I have several things ready for when the war is over. Among them is the series of essays, the first of which you have seen in the Zeitschrift.1 In all, twelve are almost ready. They will be called ‘Preliminaries to a Metapsychology’.8 My lectures for beginners,9 which I had to repeat this year,10 will probably be published before peace is signed. Heller will bring them out in three parts.
And now, please give my kind regards to your wife and your little family, and let me hear from you again soon.
Yours, Freud