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54A
Berlin
23 November 1908
Dear Professor,
I read with great pleasure the news about your eldest daughter's engagement. To the person most involved I expressed my congratulations some days ago; now I should like to repeat them to you. At the same time, I should like to thank you most sincerely for the Interpretation of Dreams. It is really rare for a book with a poor initial sale to go into a new edition after so many years. Interest must be growing after all. I am waiting eagerly to see all that you are going to write in the next few months.—I, too, have always taken the resistance against the Three Essays as a sign of their importance. I might add that this work has always been my favourite over all the others because it contains so very many ideas that still require detailed elaboration, while the Interpretation of Dreams is so well rounded and finished that there remains nothing for any of us to do. Also, what I especially like in the Three Essays is its denseness; much is hidden in every sentence.
As for the Vienna Congress, something can probably be done later. And how about our congress? It would be nice if it were to come off well again.
The psychoanalysis you mention would be very welcome, since I do not have a suitable case at the moment. In the case of a lady I was quite successful with a partial analysis which, for external reasons, I had to combine with another type of treatment. Unfortunately, I am always short of young and fresh cases. At the moment a mentally ill lady takes up hours of my time every day. A series of reports of court cases also keeps me busy. Relatively speaking, I am very satisfied with the result