Letter from Karl Abraham to Sigmund Freud, December 7, 1919

365A

Berlin-Grünewald, Bismarckallee 14
7 December 1919

Dear Professor,

Your letter of the 1st inst. reached me by the 5th! Is this a sign that conditions are improving?

I want to start my reply with best wishes for your son's wedding. A telegram of congratulations that I wanted to send was refused; such telegrams are no longer being dispatched as of some weeks ago. I must ask you to pass our congratulations on to the nearest and dearest and to all your family. We hope to see Ernst here in a short time, and also Rank.

I am terribly sorry to hear about Freund's serious illness. If metastases are already present, one must be prepared for the end to come soon. Does he himself know about his condition?

I shall discuss the question of the Congress and the Jahrbuch with Rank.

Your praise for my productivity is not justified. In the few free hours the practice leaves me I have a marked disinclination for work. Otherwise I would get much more done. The small contributions of the last few months can be explained by the fact that I am unwilling to start on anything more extensive.

You may already have heard from Eitingon that there is a possibility of premises for our polyclinic. We shall rent it if the price is within our means. Simmel will be an excellent force for the polyclinic. He is now taking up his analysis with me again. Scientifically he is making good progress, though he has a narcissistic pride in finding everything out for himself. But I have good hopes for him for the future. The same with Böhm, who is working with great enthusiasm. Incidentally, both of them, though they have only settled in a few months ago, are already very fully occupied. We are having an unhappy experience with Körber, who embarrasses us with his superficial knowledge as soon as he comes into the public eye.

I have some additions to make to Reik's papers, which I may write down quite soon. I shall take a holiday from 24 December to 4 January but shall not go away.