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Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
March 8, 1925
Dear Professor
I have been informed by Mr. Theodor Reik,1 one of my best-trained nonmedical pupils, that he has been prohibited from practicing psychoanalysis by the Municipal Council of Vienna as of February 24, 1925.
I remember a conversation I had with you on this topic which resulted in a conformity of opinion much welcomed by myself. You seemed to approve of my statement that “in psychoanalysis everyone has to be considered a layman who cannot prove a satisfactory training in the theory and technique of it,” no matter whether he has a medical degree or not.
The reasoning in the document of the Vienna Council leaves room, in my opinion, for serious objections. They ignore above all two undeniable facts-first, that psychoanalysis is not a purely medical matter, either as a science or as a technique; second, that it is not taught to students of medicine at the university.
I look upon the injunction of the Council as an unjustified encroachment in favor of the medical profession and to the detriment of patients and science.
The therapeutic interest is protected as long as the decision whether a certain case should undergo psychoanalytical treatment or not is made by a physician. In all Mr. Reik's cases I myself have made decisions of this kind. After all, I also look upon it as my right to send a patient complaining of pains in the feet and difficulties in walking to an orthopedic shoemaker (if I can diagnose the trouble as flatfoot), instead of prescribing antineuralgic and electrical treatment.