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5A
Zurich, Burghölzli
6 October 1907
Dear Professor,
Please forgive me for approaching you today without waiting for your reply to my last letter. This time I am not writing about scientific matters but about something personal. I intend to leave Zurich in about a month. In doing so, I am giving up my present work as a doctor in a psychiatric hospital. The reasons are not far to find: as a Jew in Germany and as a foreigner in Switzerland, I have not advanced beyond a junior position in the past seven years. I shall therefore try to set up in practice in Berlin as a specialist for nervous and mental diseases. To be sure, there is no shortage of neurologists in Berlin, but I am building my hopes on two factors: first, the use of psychoanalysis; and, second, my psychiatric training, which all Berlin doctors lack completely. You will already have guessed why I am writing to you. I should like to ask for your recommendation, should you ever be in a position to have to recommend a doctor for psychological treatment in Berlin. I am fully aware of the difficulties I shall encounter, and I should therefore also like to ask your permission, to turn to you for advice if the occasion arises. I should be most beholden to you for your kind support in both these respects.
I have unfortunately not yet been able to publish my paper on the sexual trauma in childhood,1 since the preparations for the move to Berlin and other matters have kept me too busy. I hope, however, to be able to finish it still within this month. After that I shall perhaps allow myself to submit something new to you again.
Your respectfully devoted
Dr K. Abraham