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11 January 1929
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
167F
Prof. Dr. Freud
Dear Dr. Binswanger,
Many thanks for your New Year letter with its welcome news! Unlike so many other people, you have not allowed your intellectual development, which you have increasingly removed from my influence, to destroy our personal relationship, and you have no idea how much good such refinement does for a person - in spite of that indifference you admire that comes with age.
I am happy to confirm your assumption that I am not at present dogged by any health concerns in the family. Even my almost 94-year-old mother is in fine fettle, and this stops me doing things an old man ought to be free to do. From a financial point of view, the family has not recovered from the harm done by the Great War. With declining powers, I still have to earn enough to support a number of younger people. Among my seven grandchildren is many a charming characteristic which ensures I cannot forget the one lost in 1923.1
We do not want to spend this summer on the Semmering again, but do not know where to go. Our symbiosis with an American family2 (without husband), whose children my daughter is bringing up with a firm hand analytically, is getting more and more established, so our needs for the summer are shared. Our two dogs, the faithful Wolf and the gentle Pekinese Lun Yug, are the latest additions to the family.
Sincere regards to you, your dear wife and the optimistic throng of children and all the best for 1929, whether I see you agan this year or not.
Yours, Freud