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Bad Gastein
July 24, 1921
Dear Mr. Carrington
I am not one of those who dismiss a priori the study of so-called occult psychic phenomena as unscientific, discreditable or even as dangerous. If I were at the beginning rather than at the end of a scientific career, as I am today, I might possibly choose just this field of research, in spite of all difficulties.
I must ask you nevertheless to refrain from mentioning my name in connection with your venture, and this for several reasons.
First, because in the sphere of the occult I am a complete layman and newcomer and have no right to claim so much as a hint of authority in this connection.
Second, because I have good reason to be interested in sharply demarcating psychoanalysis (which has nothing occult about it) from this as yet unexplored sphere of knowledge, and in not offering any occasion for misunderstanding in this respect.
Finally, because I cannot rid myself of certain skeptical materialistic prejudices which I would bring with me into the study of the occult. Thus I am utterly incapable of considering the “survival of the personality” after death even as a scientific possibility, and I feel no different about the “idroplasma.”
In consequence I believe it is better if I continue to confine myself to psychoanalysis.
Yours sincerely
Freud