December 8, 1922.
Dear Friends:

The odd date of this letter is explained by the urgency of the problems we have to 
consider. I trust I may assume that, as is certainly so in my own case, no unpleasant 
after-taste has been left by the discussion of personal matters, so that we can proceed 
to the far more important concrete questions that lie before us—having only one thought, 
namely how best to further the interests of Psycho-Analysis.

That the Verlag, except the Redaktion, is moving to Berlin may, I understand, be 
taken for granted. I have never expressed or held any opinion about this, for it con-
cerns problems quite outside my knowledge. I do not think anyone can have the slightest 
doubt of the wisdom of Rank’s judgement in such a matter, and we can only wish the new 
arrangement all good and do what we can to help it in every way. My single adverse 
thought was a general political one, that as the Allies are certainly more prejudiced 
against Germany than against Austria it is quite possible that in two or three years’ 
time the economic situation in Austria may be better than in Germany. But of course this 
is no argument whatever against moving now; in the worst case we could move back again.

The Press problem is on a different footing and is really very serious, for the 
very existence of our English undertaking is at stake, and I need not lay stress on the 
importance of England and America for the future of Psa, even in financial respects. To 
gain a clear perspective for judging of our immediate action I must return to some fund-
amentals. When the Verlag was founded our hopes and intentions in regard to it were, I 
believe, identical—that it should not only serve the function of assisting writers in 
the publication of their psa work, but should also have the function of helping the
 

to know what was reliable and what not. I looked forward to the day when the sign 
I.P.V. (or its foreign equivalent, Press, Bibliothèque, etc) should be a mark that would 
guarantee at least the seriousness of the book in question. This was an ideal, but I 
still hope that we may attain to it. It carried with it the corollary, as did also the 
title of the Verlag, that the latter should be International and not only German, in 
spite of the enormous importance of the latter language in Psa. From my point of view, 
therefore, the Press is simply a department of the Verlag. So far, the Press has, legally, 
consisted only of myself, in other words it has never been a firm, in the sense that the 
Verlag is, but a convenient fiction. My relations to the Verlag I have regarded as (1) 
to constitute an external legal facade for the English side of the Verlag, necessary for 
political and economic reasons, (2) as the English representative of the Verlag to assist 
in advising on the special circumstances of publishing in English, and (3) to take charge 
of the English side of the editorial work. There has been a tendency on Hiller’s part, 
of which I have only gradually become aware, also somewhat favoured by Rickman, to treat 
the Press as though it were an independent firm having only external, though friendly, 
relations with the Verlag, and I wish to repudiate this tendency now as definitely as 
I did in Berlin; unfortunately all my efforts to change Hiller’s attitude failed. There 
are limits to my powers, and I have neither the time, energy, nor the wish to 
conduct a commercial undertaking. In any case, Hiller’s departure makes such an idea 
more ridiculous than ever, for now we shall have no apparatus and no one with even the 
slight technical knowledge of publishing that Hiller had.

I say this because I cannot agree with Professor’s standpoint that the future 
of the Press must be decided in London. If it had to be decided in one city that should 
be Vienna, but surely the right thing is for the decision to be made by agreement and 
cooperation between the two.

Rickman has (independently from me) sent a full memorandum on the subject to
 

Vienna, and with the concrete statement in it I agree. I differ from him some-
what in the final conclusions. It is common ground that the only way of printing
in England would be by fusing with some English firm, a course to which I am ex-
tremely averse. So the printing must be done in Germany. The practical choice is
between the Verlag undertaking this Herstellung (and receiving the total profits),
in which case it would be necessary to engage an English agent to take over the
sales (Betrieb) and dealing with the customs, or entrusting to this agent also
the Herstellung in Germany. Rickman knows the man in question and he would be
willing that no name appear on the title page besides that of the Press; further
details will be found in the memorandum. I am not at all as sanguine as Rickman
about the possibility of raising further capital in England just now when money
is so scarce, and this seems to be necessary for his scheme. I should prefer
that the Verlag took over the Herstellung and the profits, but I share Rick-
man’s doubts whether it is in a position to deal efficiently with the great diffi-
culties and delays of the export and customs’ problems. If it were in Austria I
should have no doubt that Rank could deal with the situation, but Germany is not
Austria and also Rank will be at a distance. So what I want to know is whether
Rank has considered these problems in detail and what his opinion is in the matter.
I trust I have made my own standpoint sufficiently clear. As time is so pressing,
for we are in complete uncertainty about the publication of the Journal and Pro-
fessor’s Collected Papers, I think it will be necessary to communicate with each
other quickly and fully until the final decision is taken.

Berlin. The promised addendum by Sachs was not enclosed in the letter I got and I
should like to see it.

Flügel and I wrote the business report of the Congress immediately on our re-
turn to London and it was at once sent to Vienna for publication; I believe it will 
appear in Heft IV of the Zeitschrift. Rank asked me for an Autorreferat of my Vor-
trag and I assumed that he was doing the same for the Vortragenden of the Central
countries.

I take seriously the latest news of the Moscow Society and would remind you, my
dear Karl, that the resolution of the Congress empowers us to accept them when their necessary conditions are fulfilled,
but does not oblige us to do so if we are not satisfied. I would suggest, therefore,
that you indicate this to Ermakow and make enquiries about the rules of their society,
the conditions of acceptance of new members, and the means taken to acquire a know-
ledge of Psa.

With cordial greetings to all

                    Ernest Jones