DR. A. A. BRILL
88 CENTRAL PARK WEST
NEW YORK
PATIENTS SEEN BY APPOINTMENT TELEPHONETRAFALGAR 7-8070

Dec 15‑1934 1938 [Korrigiert von fremder Hand? Nach EInmarsch der Nazis in Wien]

My dear Professor

The check for # 500 what you received 
is for royalties of the Basic Writings of Sigmund 
Freud, by this time you will have 
received a copy. I wrote to you about 
this long ago and have sent you a 
check for # 500 to Vienna as soon as 
I completed the arrangements with the 
local publisher. You will note it 
contains the works which I had translated 
except Leonardo and Reflexions on War & 
PeaceDeath (mistake I wrote Peace).  Some of these 
books like Totem and Taboo, and Wit were 
out of print, as was also the history of 
the P. A. movement. The others which Jelliffe had, 
had been paying very little for years. 
The Random House who published the work 
bought all these rights from the various 
publishers and I practically retranslated 
all of the works. The book sells for # 1.25 but

[1934 1938: Korrigiert von fremder Hand? Nach EInmarsch der Nazis in Wien]

as you see they have already sold many
thousands of copies. At all events the works 
are together and will be obtainable by students 
who could not spend $ 17.50 for the originals. 
The publishers could have legally published 
this book without paying anything for it but 
they were very anxious to have it edited by 
me so they did whatever I asked them to 
do. So far you have received # 1000 which I 
am sure could nor have come from 
the original translations. If you will read my 
introduction to it you will note that the Nazis came 
to Vienna just as the book was being finished.  That 
accounts for the fact that you did not get a 
copy of it.  As to your right to the royalties we discussed 
this many years ago and I repeat what I 
told you then that whereas I have a legal 
right to them I believe that under the circum-
stances you should receive them.

I am very happy to know that you got 
your furniture collections etc out of Vienna. 
I really think it is quite remarkable. 
I am very pleased about it. By this time I hope 
you are enjoying your Chow.

Now I would like to ask you about 
Gioia. You'll recall that she has 
married a fine young man and has

a fine boy Tommy 2 ½ years.  She married at 
19 and she and her husband then went to 
college in Madison Wisconsin for four years. 
We saw them only during vacation and they 
seemed to get along very nicely. Soon after 
they returned to New York and started to keep 
house I sent Gioia to Dr. Powers for analysis, 
that is now over four years ago.  The reason 
for sending her to Powers was anxiety attacks 
or what I would prefer to call it: short moods 
of depression which came and went sometimes 
after a few hours or the longest in a few 
days. I first noticed it when she was separated 
from Phil, (her husband) when she went to college 
after she had been with him together in High School 
for about six years.  It was for this reason 
that we (both parents Gioia’s and Phil’s) decided 
to let them get married before they graduated 
from college. Phil too felt the separation rather 
deeply so they married.  During the four years 
at college she had very few of these symptoms 
but now and then they came.  Dr. Powers – 
whose husband Swasny died just about a week 
ago – then took her for treatment. I wrote to 
you at the time and spoke to you about it

when I saw you last.  At first Gioia showed 
considerable improvement and altogether I might 
say that she is much better than she has been 
but she is still subject to the anxieties. Last In the 
Spring 1937  Powers wrote me a letter in which she 
told me that Gioia was well and gave 
me a dream in which this was shown. That 
was the first time that I began to doubt Powers’ 
grasp of the situation. I hoped that she was 
right but unfortunately that was not the 
case. And since then Gioia had a 
number of attacks which I can best illustrate 
by the following: Before describing any I 
wish to add that when Powers found that 
she was wrong she then told me that Gioia 
might be one of those cases that never 
get well, that she probably belongs to some 
of the cases that you told her about it namly, 
cases that do not recover. I did not like 
this but I left it all to her. Up to this time I 
never spoke to Gioia but when Gioia expressed 
her desire to continue with the analysis I told 
her to do so and for the first time we discussed 
the situation. She said that she now has good 
insight into the situation that the main difficulty 
was with her mother who preferred her brother 
of whom she was very jealous, that her 
present attacks were jealousy of Dr. Powers

25/11/38‑
15/12

namely, that she was jealous of another 
patient, a young man whom Dr P. was treating. 
When she would accidentally see him go to 
Dr. P. when she (Gioia) was leaving she became 
very irritated and moody which persisted for 
hours. She also said that during the first 
year of analysis she accomplished little 
because she was very resistive refusing 
to associated but that for the last 1½ years 
she made great progress and was 
satisfied with the result.  She wanted to continue 
daily analysis for six more months when 
she thought she would be through.  When the 
six months were over, she spoke to me 
again and said that she and Powers have 
decided that she should continue 3 times 
a week to which I had no objection. 
During the whole of last year Gioia wanted 
to become pregnant and despite everything 
seeming normal she has not yet 
become pregnant. This gives her considerable 
worry and now and then shows depressive 
moods and occasionally hysterical crying.

When Swasey [?] Powers died Gioia became very depressed, wondered what Dr. P. would do and stated that she was identifying herself with Dr. Powers, cried and wished to see me to discuss things with me.  This morning Dr. Powers called on me and again expressed the idea that Gioia might be a case who should be kept under observation indefinitely.  I told her that the clinical picture as I see it, does not impress me this way and that perhaps it might be better to change the analyst.  As I see it Gioia is altogether too much attached to Dr. P. and Dr P. said that she, Gioia, is forever worrying what would happen to her if something happened to her analyst.  Dr. Powers said at first, that she would have no objection to a change but did not agree with me that she should go to a male analyst, she wanted me to send her to a female analyst.  About 12 hrs. after this conversation Powers telephoned me that she had an hour with Gioia and that G. feels fine and advised to let matters as they are, and when I met G. a few hours later for luncheon she was quite jovial and in every way normal.  It is my feeling that Powers is at the end of her tether with Gioia and I would appreciate if you could advise me in this matter.  Whatever you will tell me will naturally be confidential.

With my love to you all I am
Brill

Editorische Anmerkung zu den Korrekturen des Datums: 
1. Seite: [1934 1938: Korrigiert von fremder Hand? 1934 kann nicht stimmen, da Brill vom EInmarsch der Nazis in Wien und Freuds Wmigration  schreibt, was 1938 stattfand. 
5. Seite: Hier ist eindeutig vom Autor des Briefes das Datum korrigiert.