You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
322A
Allenstein
23 September 1917
Dear Professor,
I assume that you have been back in Vienna for some weeks just as we have been back here in Allenstein. My wife and children benefited from the holiday, and I at least had a good rest, though my old bronchial trouble somewhat spoilt my holiday. After we got back, my colleague Liebermann also went on four weeks' leave, so that I immediately had to take a great burden of work on my shoulders again. What with my bad state of health in the holidays and the overload of work, the result is that I have not completed the review of your Lectures as I meant to. Our financial position makes it necessary for me to carry on the practice to some extent in addition to my hospital work. Naturally my scientific interests are not getting their fair share of time. In a few days I am going (sent officially) to the Neurologists' Congress in Bonn. I shall scarcely see any of our friends. I am looking forward most to churches and museums in Cologne and Bonn. After the Congress I am going to Bremen for a few days to see my mother, who is almost past her 70th year, and on the way back to Allenstein I am having one day in Berlin. My wife is meeting me in Bremen. After that we have the endless East Prussian winter before us; so we have quickly to collect a few pleasant impressions.
On the scientific side I have hardly anything of my own to report, except perhaps that several cases of obsessional neurosis, only superficially investigated, have given me striking confirmation concerning sadism and anal erotism. The other faithful members of our small circle had the opportunity of meeting you this summer. Unfortunately I have had to forego this pleasure for exactly three years, as three years have passed since you and your brother were in Berlin in 1914! I constantly plan to make up for lost time, as far as possible, immediately once the war is over. But as long as “impotence of thoughts”1 is reigning, I shall be confined to wishing.