April 1. 1921.

Dear Friends:

As I came back from the Easter holiday only yesterday, greatly refreshed,  
I have not much to report. I advise that we accept Ferenczi’s solution abou  
about the numbering and also about the marking of cuttings; the latter should  
be kept in Vienna unless, for some special reason, a request is made to re-  
turn them to their source.

As will be seen from the enclosed cutting, the Kegan Paul case is not yet  
finished, having been adjourned again to April 11. They have written to me  
again for help and I will see what I can do. Dr. Steen first promised to give  
evidence and then refused after reading the book, which he thought he could  
not defend. And how to defend such a book is really the problem. The Sir  
Alfred Fripp mentioned in the cutting is a fashionable surgeon much given  
to advertising himself.

You may remember that Silberer, in the first number of Eros & Psyche, com-  
plained that I had omitted mention of his work in my essay on symbolism. I  
told him that there was a special section on his work and that he had rev-  
iewed only the first parts of my essay (unfortunately no indication was in-  
serted in the Z that only the first part was printed there – no „Fortsetz-  
ung folgt“). He had now read Read’s general review in the J and has written
 

to me complaining that in it Read omitted to mention that my ideas on symbol-  
ism were taken from him (S.)! He enclosed a page of MS which he wants insert-  
ed in an early number of the J, to correct the im- pression left by Read. You  
may guess that my answer to him will in the formula to which we are accus-  
tomed, “höflich, aber kühl”. It reminds me, however, to ask what has become  
of the second part of my essay.  Will it appear in the Z? If not, I think a  
note should be inserted saying that the former part was only the introduct-  
ion to the main part.  

Ferenczi is certainly right about the effect of the “Jenseits”. I had just  
the same feeling myself on reading it and wished that Professor had forestall-
ed the possibility. I hope that Rank will see that an addition is made to  
Eisler’s abstract in the sense proposed by Ferenczi.  

Bp. Many thanks, my dear Ferenczi, for the answers to my scientific quest-  
ions. My experience certainly supports what you say about the relation of 
character traits to secondary narcissism, although I have much more to learn  
about the theory of the relationship. We must study the defensive aspects of  
such traits, i.e. their necessity to the individual so as to save them from  
their unconscious or from symptoms.  

I want to send Róheim a book for review. What is his latest address?  

W. I am glad to see that I took the Swiss affair too seriously. At the same  
time I am afraid I cannot agree that I committed such a severe diplomatic  
blunder. You overlook the fact that a special meeting of a group, with a  
special commission of inquiry, formally signed, is no private matter, and  
the Swiss had taken the trouble to write to several members of the British  
Society to arouse their interest in their protest. In the circumstances
 

I should have been behaving like an ostrich if I had ignored a matter of  
possibly great importance to the Association when writing a business letter  
to Oberholzer, and thought it right to pour a little oil on the troubled  
waters, pointing out how unnecessarily strong their reaction had been and  
so on.

About Moskau, perhaps the difference between the reports of Ossipow and  
Eder may partly be due to the date. Eder has only recently returned from  
there and I hardly think he could be mistaken about the importation of books.

The very clear account you give of Brill, Tannenbaum, and the general  
American attitude of aloofness (as also in political matters) exactly agrees  
with my own impression gathered from various sources, and we must reckon  
with these facts. I will write to Stern, who is Corresponding Secretary, on  
the two matters in question, and then to Frink after hearing his reply ––  
unless you think it would be wiser if I wrote to Frink direct now. I am cert-  
ainly anxious to see something of Frink personally, as are others in London, 
and hope this will be possible this summer, best by his passing through Lon-  
don, where he would be well received.

I am writing separately to Rank on the question of acquiring the rights  
of Professor’s works in English, and on the publishing of the “Jenseits”.

Yours cordially  
Ernest Jones