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Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
May 10, 1909
Dear Pastor Pfister
The Matterhorn is now covering the unanswered letters on my desk. I happily accept that little part of Switzerland in the
symbolic sense you suggest, as homage from the only country where I feel a man of property in the knowledge that the hearts and minds of good men are well disposed towards me. I don't intend to de-fend myself personally. I have purposely set myself up only as an example, never as a model, far less as one to be venerated.
It is easy enough to endow the Matterhorn with another and less exalted meaning. The scale of 1:50,000 may be roughly the proportion in which fate fulfils our wishes, and in which we our-selves carry out our good intentions. Incidentally, it has struck me how difficult it is for us to imagine numbers; I find it extremely hard to believe that I would have to pile a mere 50,000 little squares on top of one another in order to reach the summit of a giant mountain; I should have thought it would have taken more than a million.
I would like to mention even a third significance that the Matter-horn holds for me. It reminds me of a remarkable man who came to see me one day, a true servant of God, whose very existence struck me as highly unlikely: I mean in the sense of someone who feels the need to be of some spiritual benefit to everyone he meets. So you have also done me good. After your exhortations I asked myself why I don't feel really happy, and I soon found an answer. I renounced the unattainable desire to become rich in an honest fashion, decided after the loss of one patient not to replace him, and have been well and happy ever since and realize you were right. Since then, moreover, I have remained faithful to this de-cision three times. But for your visit and your influence I should never have been able to accomplish this; my own father complex-as Jung would say-i.e., the need to correct my father, would not have permitted it.
Your remarks about transference and compensation