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Rome
September 19, 1907
Dear Colleague
On arrival here I found your letter describing the further developments of the Congress. It didn't depress me and I realize with satisfaction that it didn't depress you, either. For you, I think this experience will have good results, or at least those I like best. As for me, it has increased my respect for psychoanalysis. I was on the point of saying to myself: “What? Already on the way to recognition after barely ten years? That can't be sound.” Now I can believe again that it is. But you will see that the conditions for the tactics you have been using up to now do not exist. People just don't want to be enlightened. That is why for the present they can't understand the simplest thing. Once they are ready for it, you will see they are capable of understanding the most complicated ideas. Until then there is nothing to be done but to go on working and to argue as little as possible. After all, the only thing one can say is either: You're an idiot! or: You're a fraud! And one is quite rightly prohibited from expressing such opinions. Besides, we know they are poor devils who are partly afraid of giving offense, thus endangering their careers, and partly shackled by the fear of their own repressions. We have got to wait until they die out or gradually dwindle into a minority. Any young, fresh mind that turns up is bound to be on our side.