Letter from Sigmund Freud to Alfons Paquet, July 26, 1930

Grundlsee,1 Rebenburg
July 26, 1930

Dear Mr. Paquet

I have not been spoiled by public honors, and have therefore accustomed myself to getting along without them. I cannot deny, however, that the award of the Goethe Prize by the City of Frankfort has given me great pleasure. There is something about it that particularly warms the imagination, and one of its conditions eliminates

the humiliation normally associated with such distinctions.

I owe you special thanks for your letter; it moved and surprised me. Quite apart from [my appreciation of] the trouble you have taken to study my work, [I must tell you that] I have never before found its secret personal intention recognized with so much clarity, and I would have liked to ask you how you happen to have divined it.

I am sorry to learn from your letter to my daughter that I shall not be seeing you in the near future; delay at my time of life is somewhat risky. Of course I shall be very pleased to receive the gentleman (Dr. Michel) announced by you.

Unfortunately I cannot come to the celebration in Frankfort; my health is not reliable enough for such an undertaking. The audience will lose nothing by my absence; my daughter is certainly more pleasant to the eye and ear than I am. She is going to read a few lines dealing with Goethe in relation to psychoanalysis and defending the analysts against the reproach of having impugned the veneration due to the great man by their analytical investigations. I hope it will be possible to interpret the subject given to me: “The relations of the man and scholar to Goethe”2 in the above sense, or, if this can't be done, that you will be good enough to advise me against it.

Very sincerely yours
Freud