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459F
Vienna, Berggasse 19
17 October 1924
Dear Friend,
How ambivalent can rumour be! In Vienna I am declared dead about once a fortnight and in Berlin my visit, in order to deliver a lecture, is expected! Well, neither is true, the truth lies in-between. I am still alive, as you see, but I have no desire to lecture and will be able to think of travelling again only if Pichler succeeds in making a good and stable fastening for my prosthesis, which so far is not the case. My condition, that is to say, my capacity to speak and chew, is still so variable that there is ample room for the optimism of all the Casimiros.
I have heard only good things about Würzburg, but you are surely the most competent reporter about that. The whole thing is very gratifying.
Emden is here, as you know. He wanted to have an hour's analysis daily for four weeks, but I had to decline. I am now stingy with my work, alien as that may be to my previous nature, and am unwilling to do more than five hours. Nevertheless a 6th is almost invariably added, because of consultations and having to see people. Apart from that, I am correcting proofs, beginning the revision of the Interpretation of Dreams for the complete edition, and the like. The Autobiographical Study, which you have read, has already been set and corrected. I shall turn the fee into reprints and distribute them generously.
Rank is expected at the end of the month. You are right, we too must wait, but I think that nothing good lies ahead. I should like to separate his personality from the birth trauma and would like to have grounds