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Monday, Heilanstalt in Oberdöbling1
June 8, 1885
My sweet darling
Well, one lives and learns. Yesterday was a most amusing day; and today also seems strange and funny, although it is only 10:30. It would be easier for me to talk to you about it than describe it, but I will see what I can do. Have you ever seen this sanatorium? Do you remember the lovely park at the end of the Hirschen Strasse which continues towards Grinzing1 where the road curves? On a little hill in this park stands the sanatorium, which consists of the two-storied big “house,” the small house, and a new building; opposite is the so-called nursing home for the chronic cases.
I arrived here yesterday at 8 A.M. with a walking stick for luggage and became a member of this very mixed community. I must describe the people in greater detail. First, there's Prof. B., the overlord, whom I have known so far only by sight and reputation. An old gentleman, converted Jew, twisted features, a little wig and stiff walk, the result of gout or some nervous disease. He is associate professor of psychiatry, superintendent of the lunatic asylum, and was Meynert's teacher, but the pupil has elbowed the teacher out of all scientific jobs; only in medical practice has he been unable to get the better of him. He is not particularly talented, rather what is known as very shrewd, an old practitioner of most doubtful character, egotistic, completely unreliable, and in spite of being sixty-five or more, ready to indulge in any kind of pleasure. He runs the sanatorium with a Dr. Obersteiner, a step-brother of Minister Haymerle.2 As B. had a single daughter and Obersteiner a single son, they got married and young Prof. Obersteiner, the son-in-law of B., is the man who really runs the place. Obersteiner is a friend of Breuer, Fleischl, Exner,3 et al., pupil of Brücke, so I