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27 April 1922
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
130F
Prof. Dr. Freud
Dear Dr. Binswanger,
Regarding Frau Gi., my opinion is that in her case it is probable that nothing will be accomplished except by a combination of analysis and prohibition (counter-compulsion).1 I regret very much that, at the time, I could only avail myself of the first; the second can only be imposed in an institution.2
I have, surely, never belittled your efforts; yet it is a pity that this volume is to be no more than an introduction.
With kind regards to you, your wife, your flock of children, and also to Frau Gi.,
Yours ever, Freud
On this point Binswanger writes in (1956c), p. 70 in the 1957 English edition: ‘This “opinion” is all the more interesting because to my knowledge it stands alone and Freud has not expressed it elsewhere. Once again, as happened so often, Freud proved to be much more “tolerant” than many of his adherents who regard such “a combination” as a professional error. I learned this personally in connection with the case (described in my lecture on psychotherapy) […] of a hysterical singultus coupled with loud screams which I treated by a combination of analysis and “counter-compulsion”. Here action was required, and urgently so - it took the form of seizing the patient by the neck - if the patient who up until then had defied all treatment was not to remain master of the situation this time too.’