Letter from Sigmund Freud to Karl Abraham, April 13, 1919

353F

Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
13 April 1919

Dear Friend,

It still is no postal service if a letter arrives on the 11th day.

In the case of Simmel, I can easily put you in the picture. We had decided to strike out his name from the notifications and bring out the booklet without him if he kept us waiting yet again. It was also a suspicious phenomenon that he did not manage to write a word in reply to the awarding of the prize. I gave the prize to the publication, not the person, and as far as that goes I am not sorry. I feel, too, that S., like Breuer at the time, can personally not endure his own findings.

With regard to an over-estimation of Pötzl, it is not as bad as that here. We rather enjoy the piquancy of the situation that the first aid of the [psychiatric] clinic associates himself with Ψα, but we made him spend years courting us and are very well informed about his ambiguous character. His very notable intelligence and scientific training are in his favour; if he does nothing for us, we shall put up with the situation very well. We just did not wish to let him be rejected for so long, as he was enthusiastic. Optimism regarding academic circles has no place with us.

Rank is back; in view of the uncertainties of the recent situation in Hungary,1 he did not commit himself in any way, but he made many contacts. He found Jones as devoted to us as ever. He wants a congress, or at any rate a meeting of the committee, in Holland in the autumn. I hope it will be possible.

Your two parcels have been received with many thanks. The technical paper2 is particularly good and topical. What is perhaps missing is that the whole attitude derives from the father complex. Printing is going ahead.

The state of our affairs is in conformity with the troubled times. Ernst is cut off from us in Munich, and from the prisoner we have rare, not unsatisfactory news.

With cordial greetings to you and your dear family,