Letter from Sigmund Freud to Heinrich Löwy, March 30, 1930

Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
March 30, 1930

Dear Dr. Löwy

Your biography1 of Popper-Lynkeus which accompanied your letter has pleased me so much by its dignity and truthfulness that I would like to comply with your wish and make a contribution to your collection of solutions2 to scientific problems. But in trying to find some suitable examples I have encountered strange and almost insuperable obstacles, as though certain procedures that can be expected from other fields of investigation could not be applied to my subject matter. Perhaps the reason for this is that within the methods of our work there is no place for the kind of experiment made by physicists and physiologists.

When I recollect isolated cases from the history of my work, I find that my working hypothesis invariably came about as a direct result of a great number of impressions based on experience. Later on, whenever I had the opportunity of recognizing an hypothesis of this kind to be erroneous, it was always replaced—and I hope improved—by another idea which occurred to me (based on the former as well as new experiences) and to which I then submitted the material.

I am afraid the above will not be of any great use to your collection.

With kind regards
Yours sincerely
Freud