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Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
December 14, 1937
Dear Herr Doktor
I must add a few words to my thanks for sending me your valuable little book. Not only because you evidently appreciate analysis and also mention my name several times in a friendly manner, but above all because your book contains so many remarks which cannot help appearing important and pertinent to a Jewish reader.
Several years ago I started asking myself how the Jews acquired their particular character, and following my usual custom I went back to the earliest beginnings. I did not get far. I was astounded to find that already the first so to speak embryonic experience of the race, the influence of the man Moses and the exodus from Egypt, conditioned the entire further development up to the present day-like a regular trauma of early childhood in the case history of a neurotic individual. To begin with, there is the temporal conception of life and the conquest of magic thought, the rejection of mysticism, both of which can be traced back to Moses himself and- although not with all the historical certainty that could be desired- perhaps a little further. Two essays1 in this year's volume of Imago contain part of my findings; the most important section I had to withold. I would be pleased if you would have a look at these essays.
With kind regards
Yours sincerely
Freud
“Moses ein Ägypter” und “Wenn Moses ein Ägypter war …,” Imago, 1937. (“Moses an Egyptian” and “If Moses was an Egyptian …,” Parts I and II of Moses and Monotheism, Standard Ed., 23.)