«IP9,0»18 December l9O9  4O7 Brunswick Avenue  Toronto

«IP0,0»Dear Professor Freud,

«IP4,0»I have delayed answering your letters for a singular reason arising from my defective education.  I can read German quite well, and need never trouble you to write in English, but I cannot read the old German handwriting characters.  After making several vain attempts I thought of a German friend in Montreal, who got them typewritten for me, and after getting them back from him yesterday I hasten to reply.

«IP4,0»Your personal remarks to me were quite justified, and I thank you for being so open with me.  I quite recognise the faulty attitude I had taken up and further recognise that a little suspicion of me on your part will be hard to avoid until I prove that I have adopted a more satisfactory one.  However I cannot help that, but I will do my best in time to earn your confidence.  Deeds, not words, speak best.  I don't think I need bother you with a long account of my personal complexes; last month I sent a pretty full account of the matter to Jung,«FN1.××I have not been able to track down Jones's letters to Jung.  The collection at Sigmund Freud Copyrights Ltd, Wivenhoe, England, contains Jung's letters to Jones, primarly between 1907 and 1914.

» and asked him to send it on to you if he thought it might interest you.  Shortly put, my resistances have sprung not from any objections to your theories, but partly from an absurd jealous egotism and partly from the influences of a strong "Father complex".  You are right in surmising that I had at one time hoped to play a more important part in the movement in England and America than I now see is possible; it must, and should, be directed by you, and I am content to be of any service in my power along the lines you advise.

About Brill I find it not easy to write because I know you will be strongly inclined to take anything I may say «MDUL»cum grano salis«MDNM».  Nevertheless I will speak as honestly as possible, and you can believe me or not as you will.  My hostility to Brill I of course do not deny, and the causes of it are I think clear to me (jealousy in regard to his relation with you, etc.), but I feel quite convinced that you and Brill overestimate it considerably.  You and Jung have only heard one side of the case, his and not mine, and I have recently proved to Brill that he has several times misinterpreted my conduct (especially via incorrect reports).  Perhaps this was due to his jealousy of me (which he fully admits) having led him to suspect me and put the worst interpretations on anything he hears of me.  My attitude is as follows: I admire a number of qualities in him, especially his loyalty, honesty, and his skill in psycho‑analysis, but I am not blind to certain defects that particularly strike an Englishman.  I find him agreeable company, and like him personally, though I do not think it likely I could ever be quite intimate with him.  He does not at all understand my nature, and in some respects our tastes also differ.  However he is a good man to work with, and there is no reason on earth why we should not "pull together".  Realising how extremely important for the movement it is that, especially in a new country, the workers should be in harmony I have made every effort to come to a better understanding with him, to deal with my personal complexes, and to work loyally by his side.  I honestly think I have been successful in this, especially in the last three months, and hope that in the future all will go well.  It is of course plain to me that in a movement such as ours it is merely ridiculous and small‑minded to let personal factors play a role.  I have recently suggested to him that we send each other our articles before publication in order to get each other's comments; it will be useful to both.

And so enough of these petty personal questions, which I am sorry to have had to trouble you with.

Many thanks for your remarks about right and left handedness.  There are a great number of indications that the two correspond to male and female in beliefs, (e.g. that boys come from the right testicle girls from the left; also in Egyptian phallic worship that the [right]«FN1.××Crossed out in the original.» penis was the Father, the right testicle Horus (Christ) and the left Isis (Maria)).«FN1.××The Egyptian goddess Isis (eternal‑mother), symbol of fertility, was the mother of Horus, a sun god.

»  These are of course secondary beliefs grafted on the primary recognition of the difference between the skillful ‑‑ good ‑‑ right, and the clumsy ‑‑ evil ‑‑ left.  I had a few speculations, quite wild I fear, going further into the origin of the difference.  I am sometimes sceptical whether the accepted explanation is true, namely that the difference is a physiological one and due to the disparateness of the two halves of the brain.  Might it not possibly have originally been psychical (and therefore sexual)?  I have known cases in which the man could masturbate only with the right hand and Martius stated that this was also so!!  When Priapos was given a statue with his hand on the penis it was on the contrary also the left.«FN1.××Priapus was a fertility god with extremely large genitals.  Jones's preoccupation here with mythological figures in relation to the issue of 'right and left' was linked to his self‑analysis and his personal exploration of the concept of bisexuality.  See the description of a dream (Jones, «MDUL»Papers«MDNM», 5th ed., p. 240‑241), which refers to Priapus and the question of phallic symbolism.

»  Might early auto‑erotic practices not determine which was to be later skillful hand, in some cases right, in others left.  Probably this is quite foolish, but if you think there might be anything in it I should be glad to know.

I am glad you found Putnam had some practical knowledge of P. A.; I was afraid it was only slight.  The article of his to which you refer was one on Character‑formation, published in a book called «MDUL»Psychotherapeutics«MDNM» (a collection of articles by eight writers, including myself).  He says there, referring to my article on P.×A., "I will only say that the longer I have studied the matters of which this paper treats, the more fully I am convinced of their significance".  Also: "...persistence into later years, of mental twists and habits formed in childhood, not in their own form, but strangely altered and concealed.  The principle itself is familiar enough, but it is to the keenness and genius of Freud that we owe its working out....".«FN1.××See Jones (1909c); and Prince et al. (1910, pp. 189, 202‑3).

»  He is writing two articles on P. A., which will appear in the Feb. and April numbers of the «MDUL»Journal of Abnormal Psychology«MDNM».  No doubt he will send you reprints. «FN1.××Putnam (1909‑10).

»  I do not know which article of mine he spoke of to you; I have written several, and will of course send you reprints of them.  He is to read a paper before the American Psychololgical Association annual meeting in Boston Dec. 29 on the Relation between Bergson and Freud's conceptions of the Unconscious.«FN1.××Putnam delivered a paper entitled, "Freud's and Bergson's Theories of the Unconscious," at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Boston, 29‑31 December 1909.  For a synopsis, see «MDUL»Psychological Bulletin«MDNM», 7(1910):44.

»  The secretary also asked me to read a paper, and I have given as a subject "Freud's Theory of Dreams".  It will be short, only 2O minutes allowed, but I will ask the editor of the «MDUL»Psychological Review«MDNM» if I may publish it there in extended form with examples to illustrate the points. «FN1.××This did not appear in «MDUL»Psychological Review«MDNM», see Jones (1910d).

»  I have a good collection of dream analyses, both of patients and my own.  Morton Prince is to read a paper on the same day on Dreams.«FN1.××Prince (1910a).

»  He wrote to me to be prepared for an attack, so I suppose we shall have a battle royal.  I will send you an account of the meeting.

Adolf Meyer has asked me to write a 9OOO word article on Freud's Psychology (review) for the March no. of the «MDUL»Psychological Bulletin«MDNM».«FN1.××Jones (1910h).

»  I haven't begun it yet, but I expect I shall find it difficult.  However I will do my best and shall probably call on your help, as you are always very generous with it, a fact I personally very greatly appreciate.  Last month I gave an address on P.×A. before the Niagara District Association.  It was excellently received, and it has just been accepted by the «MDUL»Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases«MDNM», probably for March.«FN1.××Jones (1910c).

»  In January my Hamlet and also the Nightmare article come out.«FN1.××Jones (1910a) and (1910m).

»  I am full of plans for future work but will not speak of them, for experience has shewn me that I never carry out more than half of what I plan, although I work very hard (This year I find I have published l8 articles,«FN1.××For 1909 the bibliography of Jones's writings contains fourteen articles (Jones, 1909a, 1909b, ..., 1909n).  At least four others might be included for consideration as part of the 1909 series: Jones (1910a), the essay on Hamlet, which appeared in the January 1910 issue of the «MDUL»American Journal of Psychology«MDNM»; Jones (1910o), which was based on an address delivered at the Toronto Orthopedic Hospital 13 November 1909; Jones (1909‑10), which appeared in the December 1909‑January 1910 issue of the «MDUL»Journal of Abnormal Psychology«MDNM»; and Jones (1910c), which was based on an address delivered before the Niagra District Association of St. Catherine's, Ontario, 24 November 1909.  (We might also consider Jones (1911h), which likely dates from the 1909 period; and possibly Jones (1910d), which was to be delivered 29 December 1909.)

» mostly neurological however).  Private practice is satisfactory, I have four or five P.×A. a day and much other work, especially teaching in the University.  Last week the Government started an out‑patient Clinic for Nervous and Mental Diseases,«FN1.××A picture of this clinic, a decrepit-looking shack, is contained in Cyril Greenland, «MDUL»Charles Kirk Clarke: A Pioneer of Canadian Psychiatry«MDNM» (Toronto: Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, 1966, p. 17).

» and appointed me Director.  I am giving (by request) a series of lectures on your work and Jung's at the asylum.  They are well attended and evoke much interest.

I was very interested to hear about Modena of Ancona, for I think I can claim a little credit in his taking up the work.  We spent a month together at Kraepelin's clinic ten years ago.«FN1.××Jones's analysis of this slip of the pen is contained in his next letter to Freud.

»  He was then averse to your work, but we had many talks and have since corresponded.  He was much taken up with anatomy and I had difficulty in getting him to realise the importance of the psychological point of view.  Have you heard from Assagioni [Assagioli] of Florenz?

We are greatly looking forward to your next work.  The 2«MDUL»e«MDNM» Hälfte des «MDUL»Jahrbuch«MDNM» has not yet arrived, perhaps it is not yet out.  I sent Jung last week the review of the English literature he asked for the «MDUL»Jahrbuch«MDNM».«FN1.××Jones (1910n).

»

Would you like me to translate the Clark lectures, or are they doing it in Worcester?«FN1.××The translator was Harry W. Chase, Fellow in Psychology, Clark University, see Freud (1910a).

»  It is good news that you soon recovered from the journey, and especially from the American cooking.

Is the month of the congress yet decided on?

I apologise for the undue length of this epistle, but you see there were many things I wanted to tell you.

With warmest regards  yours ever  Ernest Jones.