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11 January 1940
195B
[Binswanger to Anna Freud]
Dear Fräulein Anna,
I was very glad to learn that you and Messrs. Bibring and Kris had already had the same idea as myself. I am certain that your appeal will be successful. Needless to say, I shall do my utmost to help see that it is, but I hardly believe that will be necessary. If I may give you some advice, then it is to frame the appeal in such a way that it covers all types of correspondence from your father, and not merely those of purely scientific or impersonal interest. One day you will have to resign yourself to the idea of a biography of your father, and for that it is impossible to collect too much material. I myself remember very well how deep an impression it made on me when your father wrote to me about the death of his grandson,1 who, like one of my own sons, died of tuberculous meningitis. There was scarcely any other occasion on which I gained so deep an insight into his character as I did then, and even though this particular trait is not of paramount importance, I should nevertheless be happy if posterity were also to learn something of your father's innermost core, for the sake of which I loved and revered him so particularly. I should sort the material into three categories, namely:
scientific contributions
to the theory
to the practice of psychoanalysis
contributions to the history of the psychoanalytic movement, of its adherents and its opponents
biographical items concerning the inner and outer life of your father.