DR. A. A. BRILL
55 CENTRAL PARK WEST
NEW YORK
PATIENTS SEEN BY APPOINTMENT TELEPHONE COLUMBUS 6615

Oct 27 / 14

My dear Professor

Your two letters reached me within a few 
days and the first one gave me much 
pleasure. I am exceedingly glad to know 
that you are well and sincerely hope that 
your son will come home to you unharmed. 
There is no use discussing war with you. You 
see things that I hear of, usually in a 
distorted manner but as I said in 
my last letter, public opinion here is

gradually undergoing a change.  The enclosed 
editorial from one of our leading journals, 
a journal not at all pro‑German, is a 
fair illustration of the present trend.  I am doing 
all I can in contributions and propaganda to 
help your cause and if there is anything that 
you could suggest I could do I would 
be only too happy to do so.

Now as to the second letter: It is unfortunate 
that my first letter to you which I mailed 
to you a few days after receiving your Geschichte 
der ψα (That was a few days before Federn sailed 
for the first time) was not received by you. If

you have received it by this time many things 
will be explained. I cannot recall everything 
that I said in it but a good part of the letter 
was devoted to your paper which I had just 
finished reading. In your last letter you 
thought it strange that I should be the only one 
of your pupils who has not expressed himself 
concerning your Geschichte der ψα. If that were 
so it would indeed have been strange but as 
a matter of fact I discussed it very enthusiastically 
and expressed my gratitude to you for

giving me so honorable a place in it.  I also told 
you of my wish to translate it and asked you 
permission to publish it in Prince’s Journal. You 
see this translation is comparatively very simple 
and it would take little time to do it.  I could dict-
ate it to my stenographer without any previous 
preparation. I was most anxious to do it because 
I fully realized that it was most important that it 
should be given to our readers when the Jung 
and Adler views are being pushed as "new advances 
in ψα“.  I was hard at work preparing it when I 
met Jelliffe and he told me of Jonese’s connection with 
it. This naturally stopped me. I was baffled and 
I refused to believe it. It was very strange. (As a

matter of fact Jones did have something to do with it.  In a letter just received (Oct 19) from him answering my question he says: AI suggested to Jelliffe that he secure Freud's article for his Review, thinking of course you would translate it, I hear now from Payne that he is negotiating with you about the translation")  To return to the above.  I waited to hear from you before definitely deciding to whom I should offer it.  My own choice was naturally Prince but then I reasoned if Jones thinks it right to suggest to Jelliffe that

he secure it for the Review, it must be with some 
knowledge of your desire and perhaps your consent. 
I will add that Payne never asked me about 
the translation although he occasionally consults 
me about some difficulties with his patients. 
Payne was with Jung and as far as I know he 
is in sympathy with Jung in every way. 
To be truthful had he asked me I would have said 
„no“, simply because, I can do it as quickly and 
as well as he, and as it is a most important 
contribution which in my opinion will have the 
greatest influence on the psychoanalytic movement 
of the future I naturally prefer to do it myself. 
In this connection I wish to call your attention 
to the fact that this translation is in no way to

be compared to the translation of the Witz etc. where 
I have to spend hours and days in search of 
fitting examples. Translations as such offer 
no difficulty for me.  More of this later.

It is therefore very surprising that you should 
have asked Payne to do it for you. Frankly 
speaking I feel somewhat hurt, although I had 
felt for sometime that you were not quite 
satisfied with my translations.  I would have been 
ready to leave it to someone else had you wanted 
it. You will recall that I offered to do so about 
two years ago. But as you insisted that es

soll beim Alten bleiben I continued.  You may think 
that it is my fault that things do not run faster.  
I wish to say if it were not for many external 
factors over which I have no control the Witz would 
have been out long ago. All the reviews of the 
translations I ever made, agree that I did 
my work carefully, and the Wit particularly 
requires much care and time.  I have plenty 
of material when it comes to dreams and psycho-
pathology but I have to hunt for witticisms 
that would fit in with your thoughts and do 
justice to your own. That accounts for the 
tardiness. Federn was wrong. I told him I 
hoped to have it out soon and if it

were not for the war it would have been 
on the road to the publisher.  You will see the Mss first.

Oct 30

(I was interrupted and could not resume until now.) 
I also inquired about giving out some of your 
smaller papers but so far I have not received 
any encouraging promises. Of course Jellife 
would take all I could give him. However I 
am sure that I shall place them in time. I 
am telling you all this to show you that I am 
not asleep and that I am striving hard to bring 
your works before English readers. Totem u. Tabu 
is practically finished but in accordance

with your wishes I shall not give it to publisher 
before the Wit will be out. Still I feel, as I said above, 
that you are not pleased and for that reason I 
am willing to let someone else do the translations. 
I shall simply finish what I am working on now 
viz. Wit, & Totem & Tabu. I am convinced that 
Jones has been trying in all sorts of ways to 
bring this about and has not been honest with 
me about it. I say this without the slightest 
rancor. I am ready to devote myself to my 
work and let someone else to the translations. 
Why should Jones suggest to Jelliffe that he secure 
it for his Review when he always maintains 
that he is out of sympathy with it?  He repeatedly 
advised me not to write anything for the Review

which I have so far strictly followed. White & Jelliffe 
who claim to be very friendly to me are continually 
begging me to write something for them. Another 
thing, how does Jones know that Payne is negotia-
ting with you me about the translation? Be that as 
it may, I am satisfied to leave things to you.

In my first letter I also spoke at lenght 
concerning Federn. He made a very poor 
impression on me and from what I heard 
he impressed strangers in the same way. I 
agree with you that he is a „Schmock“.  His

constant desire to speak before gatherings made him 
ridiculous. Since he left I heard from a 
doctor whom he visited that Federn told him 
that I am doing very poorly in my practice 
that I have hardly anything to do. If this is 
true and I have no reason to doubt it, it is 
pure invention as I was unusually busy 
while he was here and never complained to 
him. He has however many admirable 
qualities; but what I disliked most in him 
was his uncertainty about his own position. 
He was with Jung, with Adler but always 
protested his loyalty to you. I could not 
see how that could fit together.

The coming event will take place in about 
a month and Mrs. Brill is fully prepared 
for it. Her condition is very good. 
Gioia’s pertussis is practically gone, 
she is in good health but shows many 
traits of the only child. It is for that 
reason that I have sent her to a Kinder-
garten where she remains from 9 to 12.

Hoping that this will find you in 
the best of health and that peace will soon

be declared I am

Very sincerely
Brill