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279A
Allenstein
6 July 1915
Dear Professor,
I was just going to write to you to ask about the reason for your silence, when your letter arrived. I am glad to hear that it was only delayed for psychological reasons. One so easily fears other reasons in these times. I fully understand your feeling of scientific isolation, and am myself one of those who is failing to liberate you from it. But it has been weeks since I was able to add a line to my still unfinished paper. The hospital work takes up almost all my time. My duties as a psychiatrist are, incidentally, only a side-line. In the main, I have become a surgeon, not only an assistant or dresser, but an operating surgeon, too. The psychoanalyst in me stands amazed while I operate on a hydrocele or carry out a rib resection because of empyema. But war is war.
I have recently regained my good spirits. There was a very worrying period again between my last letter and this one. About a fortnight ago I had most alarming news from Bremen about my father, had to rush off there and found him very ill. He had severe neuralgia of the left arm, partly connected with his heart, and was greatly weakened by the resultant sleeplessness, morphine, and accompanying feverish bronchitis. When I arrived, the illness had already passed its climax, and he recovered so much before my eyes that I was able to leave after a few days. He is now slowly improving. On my return journey, I stayed one day in Berlin. Our boy is still rather weak after his severe illness, he still had paresis of the soft palate, which made eating difficult. The albuminuria is over. My wife has been in Fürstenberg (Mecklenburg) with the children for a short time, where the forest and the water will do them good. Unfortunately we are completely restricted to telegraphic communication; my wife has not had one line from me for eight days. Anyhow, you know these occasional disturbances there too. Great events cast their shadows before.1
I hope to be able to have 8-14 days' le