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21 April 1918
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
116F
Prof. Dr. Freud
Dear Dr. Binswanger,
Special thanks for your kind letter at a time that is driving us towards pauperisation and isolation! Congratulations to you and your wife on your new child, whom you call the fourth son.1 Am I mistaken in thinking that you also have a daughter? In which case he would be a son and the fourth child.2
I am very glad to hear that you are so busily engaged in your work,3 and that it is making such good progress. With the impatience of an old man who is no longer quite sure of the length of his days, I should have liked to see your book already completed. But I have always felt such impatience, even in the old days. It is true that recently it has seemed as if German science may be readier now to take to analysis. Perhaps its truth is gradually being recognised, with the exception, of course, of the Oedipus complex, for which a special latency period and the passing of a generation is required.
Meanwhile we have not been entirely idle here. Help from outside has, admittedly, come only from the Dutch, who, as you know, have founded a new local group.4 I hope you are receiving the Zeitschrift and Imago regularly if rarely. It hasn't been possible to send you special offprints because of the restrictions. My writings since 1914 are about to be published by Heller in Vienna as the fourth volume of the Sammlung.5
I would love to spend a summer at Lake Constance near you, but cannot consider it while my sons are in the army. One of them is at home with a minor lung complaint,6 the other two are in Italy and Bessarabia, still unharmed. When peace comes, I shall remind you of your promise to come here. That will put an end to a long period of privation. Let us look forward to it!
With kind regards to you and your large family,
Yours, Freud