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160A
Berlin
29 June 1913
Dear Professor,
I have now read the totem paper twice, always with increasing enjoyment and continually growing conviction of the correctness of your view. I do not want to go into detail today; I want to express my gratitude through the paper that I announced for the Congress, which will bring some additions—not inconsiderable ones, it seems to me—to the subject. Today I only want to say that I find rich confirmatory material in my psychoanalyses. Only yesterday I discovered something I did not know until now: a perfectly clear tree-totemism in a neurosis, whereas so far I had only encountered animals. It becomes evident in this case, just as in the totems of primitive peoples, that we are not dealing with something as primary and elemental as animal totemism.
Recently I have scarcely been able to write a line. My ten hour-a-day stints are likely to last until the holidays; yet various long-planned papers, which I should like to send to the , are pressing upon me. The preparatory work on the Habilitation paper is naturally taking up what little free time I have.
Thank you very much for your information on Holland! We found accommodation in Noordwijk. My wife is travelling with the children on 8 July; I myself am not going until the end of July and shall remain there until the end of August. I shall have 1 to 11/2 weeks free before the Congress. If it could be fitted in with your programme, I should be very happy to meet you sometime and somewhere, but it goes without saying that you should not upset your plans in any way. The day before the Congress in Munich will be given over to tiresome inside politics; after the Congress you will, like myself, certainly want to get home as soon as