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32A
Berlin
19 May 1908
Dear Professor Freud,
By the time you receive this letter, your wife will already have given you our regards. My wife and I were so pleased with her visit and only regretted that there could be just this one short meeting.
My reaction to the inquiry in your last letter can only be one of glad acceptance. However, I shall be able to say whether or not I can manage on my own the work allotted to me only when I know more precisely what it involves and also how much time I shall be allowed for it. I assume that I would first have to give a collective review of all your writings. As far as I know, I have them all. But I do not have exact knowledge of all the other papers contributed from Vienna. Could I perhaps have a list? I assume that the Psycho-Analytic Society is in possession of all the papers. Perhaps Herr Rank would be kind enough to draw up such a list for me. Could I possibly also borrow from the Society's library those papers that I cannot obtain here? The German literature contains very few positive contributions indeed, and these I can find myself.
First of all, then, I should like to see how much work is involved and how much time I may take over it. Then I can easily judge whether I can manage by myself, or whether I would have to ask Herr Rank for his help. To the work itself I am very much looking forward.—I cannot give you any news about the Jung affair, as I am still waiting for a reply.
The elaboration of the Soma myth is, after all, taking up more time than I had expected, as Kuhn only gives an incomplete interpretation on this point. I therefore have to work off on my own bat and, consequently, must be doubly careful. The interpretative work is most interesting, though, and also yields the same layers and the same wish-fulfilments as the Prometheus myth. I am most grateful to you for your advice to include this myth.1
In connection with Jokes, I have arrived at some further understanding of the psychology of mental illnesses, especial