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382A
Berlin-Grünewald
16 July 1920
Dear Professor,
Naturally I obey your arguments. I would definitely not have made the second proposal—that you should speak in Berlin before the Congress—had you given that reason for declining the first. You wrote at the time that the dates we had originally proposed were not convenient. Your first letter did not contain a refusal in principle. Therefore I am not quite so much at fault. We have, incidentally, given up the whole plan. In the form we planned it, it would have involved considerable expense, and this could only have been met with your name to arouse interest in medical circles.—But surely you will be speaking in The Hague?
Now I want to tell you about Halle. The paper was read only on 10 July, and was very successful. I spoke before 30 doctors, most of them from the Clinic for Internal Medicine. The psychiatrists stayed away with all kinds of excuses. Only one doctor from the municipal mental hospital turned up. My listeners were at first sceptical and negative. In the course of the paper, their supercilious smiles gave way to the utmost attention. The discussion yielded far more agreement than disagreement. One Privatdozent spoke very definitely in favour of Ψα; a second followed. Others put factual questions, including some concerning the possibility of learning Ψα. One of the senior physicians of the clinic told me afterwards that he had up to now completely rejected Ψα but through my paper he had come to see that there was something in it after all. One young assistant definitely declared that he wanted to get to know Ψα and that he would come to Berlin for this purpose. The only psychiatrist present, whom I mentioned above, said that the youngest generation of psychiatrists “inclined strongly towards Freud”. I left well satisfied. I may possibly speak in the autumn before the Medical Association of Halle, which has about 200 members. Such invitations are in general becoming more frequent. Today, for instance, I was as