THE INTERNATIONAL PSYCHO‑ANALYTICAL PRESS«MDNM»

«FR»22 May 1922

«FL»Dear Professor:

«IP4,0»At last I come to write, though I wish there were a wireless telephone between London and Vienna.  My secretary has left suddenly and I have in her place a congenital imbecile, which involves double work.  I hope the indisposition of which you speak was a slight one and now over, though I am sure you are eagerly looking forward to the holidays.  It is too bad that you should be troubled over all these business matters, but you would plunge into them instead of entrusting them to me.  You are eager to relieve me, and I you, it seems.  But you have worked enough otherwise to be able to leave such matters to your representatives, and I should like to take you at your word as you put it in your letter that you are willing to drop the matter of the Press.

This brings me to a matter I am very loth to speak of, and I will tell you why.  I wanted to leave Mrs. Riviere in peace to her analysis without disturbance; also I did not want to risk a further discord being sown between us by your quoting passages from my letters, which has already happened.  But it seems impossible to avoid the subject, for she has cleverly managed to introduce into her analysis with you the same difficulty as happened with me, namely the intermixture of analytical considerations with external actual ones; perhaps it was unavoidable on her part.  Now, however, it seems impossible to postpone, as I had hoped, the latter set of considerations until her analysis was over.  Otherwise it may be too late to remedy matters.

First a few words on the analytic side.  Her story of my unkindness is, so far as I can see, a pure myth.  She is known in the Society as my favourite, people wonder why I endure her behaviour, and I have never treated any other patient with such consideration, in both feeling and conduct.  But every proof of kindness on my part was always ignored or taken as her natural right as a matter‑of‑course, or even regarded as an insult.  One example of the latter out of dozens.  When she was ill in a nursing home I called and left her some books to read.  This she found to be insulting, for it shewed that that was «MDUL»all«MDNM» I was willing to give her.  This, of course, after the critical ninth month when the expected child did not arrive.  After this time she regressed to identifiction with her father and treated me (with some exceptions, of course) like her younger brother, whose sole function in life was to admit that he was nothing by the side of her greatness.  This attitude continued and, now that she feels sure of your support in all her views and wishes, her letters have become more intolerably dictatorial and harsh than ever.  Coming now to the practical effects.

If her position is that of an assistant to me she will never find me, and has never found me, lacking in gratitude for her help, in generosity towards her wishes, and in admiration for her gifts.  But it depends on this proviso.  When I was thirty I had the experience of cooperating with a domineering woman, you know whom I mean, whose one idea was that every act and opinion of mine was in all details to be dictated by her.«FN1.××Loe Kann.»  I could not endure it then, and I am 13 years older now.  It is not easy for anyone to get on well with her unless either he is in a position of acknowledged supremacy, as you are, or else is effeminate like Strachey.  Even Hiller, who has more capacity than I have for getting on with hectoring women, writes that he has almost reached the breaking‑point, is counting the days before she leaves Vienna, and begs me to come to Vienna to help him.  The saying here is that her visit to Vienna will be the final and most severe test of Psa, and people are most curious to see if her disdainful way of treating other people like dirt beneath her feet will undergo any modification.

Why I write this is to indicate that the future path may after all be not so smooth and easy as one could wish, and by no means only in regard to myself.  She is put at the head of a translating staff, but the important question of capacity to work with other people is not yet proved.  For this reason I am strongly in favour of not extending her position, at least officially, until we see how the present one will work.

With regard to helping in other work, e.g. the «MDUL»Sammlungen«MDNM», I have written to ask her if she would like to undertake the correction of the translations prior to my final revision.  I hope she will, for I could then do my part much quicker.  She sent me some suggestions about the re‑arrangement of the «MDUL»Sammlung«MDNM» volumes.  They struck me as very good, but I did not think them out carefully because I must first know whether you are prepared to re‑open this question.  You may remember that I also made a number of suggestions when the list was first sent to me, and that they were nearly all vetoed by yourself and Rank, so I had assumed that the matter was closed.  Would you prefer it to remain so, or would you like me to revise it with Mrs. R's assistance?  In the latter event I could of course submit a final list to you if necessary.

I had not heard about the death in Frink's environment and am glad to think that his problems will be simplified.  Like you, I have great hopes of his future, for he seems to be quite the best man in America.  On the other hand he has not fulfilled a single one of the promises he made last year, about abstracting articles there or even writing letters, but one must make allowances for his internal turmoil.

I have to write to you about three people who are going to apply to you for a vacancy in October.  One at least is valuable.  Money‑Kyrle, aged 23, an aristocrat of the highest family and, what is better a first class brain.  Young as he is I regard him as a powerful thinker with a very clear grasp of essentials.  His line is the modern application of mathematics to the principles of science and he may do much in defining the basis of our science in the future.  He came to me because of Angst at using his voice, which proved to be based on an obstinate (manifest) masochistic perversion.  He made good progress, but failed at the last when I gave him a terminus at Easter.  After leaving he foolishly rushed off and married an older woman in a short time, against my advice.  She is the second patient, but I know nothing of her except that she is an anthropologist.  Incidentally he can afford to pay at least three guineas.  The third person is less attractive, Dr. Riggall a member of our society, who was analysed by me for 18 months.  He has no brains and I regret that he went in for the work.  Worse than that he has the character traits of being untrustworthy and self‑seeking, his real interest in Psa not being very deep.  I fear his motive in coming to you (for a couple of months) is little more than «MDUL»Reklame«MDNM» [window‑dressing].

Dr. Glover«FN1.×׫MDNM»James Glover (1882‑1926), M. B., Ch.×B. 1903 Glasgow, older brother of Edward Glover (1888‑1972), M.×B., Ch. B. 1909, M. D. 1915 Glasgow.  The two had been in analysis with Abraham at various times during the period (1920‑1922) in Berlin; James played a key role in directing the Medico‑Psychological Clinic, Brunswick Square, and was an associate member of the British Psycho‑Analytical Society; both brothers were elected full members of the Society on 4 October 1922.

» proved himself in the paper which I mentioned in the Rundbrief to be an extremely close thinker and I am sure you will be pleased with the contributions he has made to your theory of melancholia.«FN1.××James Glover, "Notes on the Psychopathology of Suicide," read before a meeting of The British Psycho‑Analytical Society, 3 May 1922, author's abstract in «MDUL»Journal«MDNM», 3(1922):507‑508.

»

Then I am forgetting Dr. Cole, who I believe has already written to you.  She is a loyal well‑meaning person, with practical capacity, but no theoretical brain.  You may remember her at the Congress from her fat figure and her «MDUL»outré«MDNM» [exaggerated] manner of dressing in bright colours.  I analysed her, but could not completely disperse her asthma though it is much better.

Of myself there is little to say except good.  My wife's beauty grows daily in her radiant «MDUL»Mutterglück«MDNM»,«FN1.××i.e. happiness at being a mother.» and her charm and devotion are unsurpassable.  I am wise enough to know how to profit from my luck and so am exceedingly happy.  The boy is singularly amiable for his age and Gwenith has her mother's charm combined with a determinedness that may stand her in good stead in life, where she will have to win her own way.  Both are ideally robust and healthy.

One cannot exhaust all topics, but this letter is already long enough.

With my warmest good wishes to you and yours  affectionately yours  Ernest Jones