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116A
Berlin
29 October 1911
Dear Professor,
I have not written to you since Weimar. You will see from the enclosure1 that since then there has been a conflict within our group. Hirschfeld declared his resignation and has stuck to his decision in spite of all attempts at persuasion. At his request, I am sending you his letter. It is a question of resistances that link up with an external cause (Jung's
behaviour towards him2), but this is definitely not their source. At a lengthy members' meeting, during which Weimar was discussed, he displayed an ignorance about Ψα that was outright shocking. It is true that something completely different had originally made him join us. It was most probably only the emphasis on sexuality that made analysis attractive to him, especially at a time when his own sex research met with hostility. Basically, Hirschfeld's defection is no loss to us, for the work of our group it is, rather, a gain. On the other hand, I regret his decision for personal reasons. The Congress aroused much irritation also in Koerber and Juliusburger, but this has virtually died down by now. In order to prevent our meetings this winter from becoming too superficial, I have suggested, and won through, that we all work through the Three Essays in the form of reports and discussions.
Despite these unpleasantnesses, I recall the days in Weimar with great pleasure. I have followed up the private discussion we had on the last day and found out a number of interesting facts about totem animals.3 I shall report when my observations are more complete. I have sent two small communications to Stekel for the .4 Now I am occupied with the finishing strokes on my Weimar paper, and this will soon follow. After that, a little essay on a strange ceremonial5 is to come: women who every evening before going to bed dress up as brides—brides of death. I could analyse such a case in detail and have a second quite analogous case.—I have undertaken one issue of a new series cal