11 June 1913  Pension Gerö  Lipót‑körút 1O  Budapest V

Dear Professor Freud,

Thank you so very much for your kind and sympathetic letter; I echo every word of it.  Like you, I feel very concerned about my wife's future, and still feel bound to her to the extent of watching over and caring for her, unless that is taken from me by Herbert Jones.  I hope deeply that she will be happy, for she deserves it after so much suffering.  Nothing has given me truer pleasure than the times when I have been able to make her feel happy, and it was (and is) a grief to me that these were not longer and more permanent.  I shall certainly try in any event to maintain an affectionate friendship with her, and this at least should be possible.  She wrote me a charming letter this week, the first real token of affection for months, and it made me so happy.

As for myself I am sure already that time will heal the wound in a healthy way, and am beginning to adapt myself to the altered situation, at least so far as consciousness is concerned.  I doubt that with me work and friends (even such friends!) will fully compensate for the love I need, and feel at present inclined to marry again, perhaps in two or three years.  Next time I must make a more normal choice, and shall know far better how to make a wife happy (knowledge brought by much suffering to two souls).  For the immediate future, however, such thoughts must be postponed ‑‑ they are day dreams ‑‑ and I must apply myself to the urgent needs of the situation.  There will be much to do, and I hope to have a good enough heart to do it.  Then perhaps in time to come, who knows but that you may yet visit me in my house in London?  That will be one stimulus the more for me to work hard.

I am satisfied that the analysis is going on well, and I hope Ferenczi is.  I do not know, for he is rather reserved in the matter, and will no doubt tell you his opinion more frankly.  He is exceedingly intelligent, as well as kind, and I greatly admire his technique of dealing with me.

You were of course right about an unconscious personal resistance in regard to yourself, and Ferenczi had in the first few days analysed the psychical side of my Cobenzl tiredness.  As you no doubt suspect, my unconscious, with the logic peculiar to itself, had been blaming you for the loss first of my greatest friend (Trotter), then of my wife, i.e. the man and woman who were dearest to me.  With such a great loss it is little wonder that I mechanically sought for someone to blame, especially when I had so much self‑blame that needed projecting.  However there isn't any doubt but that this will be only a passing phenomenon, even in the unconscious, for consciously my attitude is quite the opposite, and has been all through.  There is no question about appreciating your attitude, for the delicate correctness of this is sky‑clear, and I am only sorry that you should have been placed in such a painful situation.

From outside I have no news, except that Payne and Pfister are negociating about the matter of translation.^[1] It is the best possible news to hear from you that Rank is again all right, and I cordially agree with all that you say concerning him.

I don't know when we are coming to Vienna, but I suppose this month sometime.

With kindest regards  from  Yours always  Jones.

^[1]           Probably regarding Pfister (1913).