lO December l9O8  35 Chicora Avenue Toronto

Dear Professor Freud:

«IP4,0»Many thanks for your kind letter.  How I admire your facility in a foreign language!  Ability to speak or write German even tolerably is one of the things I greatly desire.

I meant to go to Boston and New York this week to talk things over and sound the feeling there, but have had to postpone my visit till after Xmas.«FN1.××See note 2 to letter 231.  In his historical writings Jones recalls that he met James Jackson Putnam in December of 1908.  Consider the following accounts: "In December 1908 Dr. Morton Prince invited me to be his guest in Boston, when I first met Dr. Putnam." (Jones, 1919; in Putnam, 1921, p. 462); "It was Dr. Putnam who published, in the first number of the «MDUL»Journal«MDNM» «MDUL»of«MDNM» «MDUL»Abnormal«MDNM» «MDUL»Psychology«MDNM» (February, 1906), the first paper in English specifically on psycho‑analysis, and the first adequate account of it in that tongue.  His summing‑up was, however, on the whole adverse.  In December, 1908 I had many talks with him in Boston and induced him to revise his judgement..." (Jones, 1945, p. 9); and "In the autumn of 1908, while staying with Morton Prince in Boston, I had held two or three colloquiums at which sixteen people were present: among others, Putnam, the Professor of Neurology at Harvard University..." (Jones, 1955a, p. 56; 1955b, pp. 62‑63).  Jones's visit to Boston took place in February of 1909, as is evident in his next letter to Freud.»  I am not very hopeful of the present wave of interest, for the Americans are a peculiar nation with habits of their own. They shew curiosity, but rarely true interest (it is the difference between the itch of a neurasthenic and the [longing] «FN1.××Crossed out in the original.» desire of a normal lover).  Their attitude towards progress is deplorable.  They want to hear of the "latest" method of treatment, with one eye dead on the Almighty Dollar, and think only of the credit, or "kudos"«FN1.××Greek word originally; slang meaning glory, fame, renown.

» as they call it, it will bring them.  Many eulogistic articles have been written on Freud's psychotherapy of late, but they are absurdly superficial, and I am afraid they will strongly condemn it as soon as they hear of its sexual basis and realise what it means. The most we can hope for is a few practical converts who can work and spread their experience.  However we must do what we can and pave the way for the future.  Brill and I will of course send you reprints of our articles.  I published my Salzburg paper in Prince's journal in August,«FN1.××Jones (1908d).

» and from the letters I received about it it seems to have found favour.  I am very eager to keep our movement strictly scientific, for that will very greatly increase its "respectability" and power of obtaining a hearing.  I am going always to dissociate myself from all these quack Xian Science and Emmanuel Church movements, for it is almost hopeless to convert these religious fanatics on a large scale, and also their pandering to the populace brings anyone associated with them into discredit in scientific circles. I have refused to write for this paper «MDUL»Psycho‑Therapy«MDNM»«FN1.××William B. Parker, ed., «MDUL»Psychotherapy: A Course of Reading in Sound Psychology, Sound Medicine and Sound Religion«MDNM», 3 vols. (New York: Centre Publishing, 1909), a work devoted to the history and philosophy of psychotherapy, as well as its methods.

» (which in itself is a quack word over here), and I am glad to hear that you and Jung have also refused.  Morton Prince warned the editor against your sexual writings, and they do not want anything that might offend the delicate susceptibi­lities of the gentle ladies and clergymen that form a great part of its audience ‑‑ a charming attitude for scientific work, isn't it.  Prince also gave me the same warning this week when he sent me two articles of Abraham's to review for his journal.«FN1.××See note 1 to letter 11.

»  One has to be very careful here, otherwise no one will listen to one.  For instance even the respectable Prince is thought nothing of because of the "theatricality" of some of his work, and his dealing into such unsuitable subjects as the subconscious!!  By the way I suppose you know he is opening the discussion on the subconscious at the Geneva Congress in August.«FN1.××Sixth International Congress of Psychology, Geneva, Switzerland, August 1909.

»  He told me you were going.  Is it true?  You can see if it is worth while to discuss his views, for he began a series of articles on the subject in the October number of his journal. «FN1.××Prince (1908‑09).

»

Thank you very much for your kind offer re the Kinderspielen.  I should greatly like to do it, for I have for years been interested in the subject since the time when I was a school doctor and used to discuss the question with teachers, and have collected much material.  I have, however, so much work on hand that I am afraid I cannot undertake it for at least another year.

Your answer to my first question explained what I wanted to know, but with the second one I did not make myself sufficiently clear.  You say that Angstträume occur in all sorts of people.  It is true, however, that the majority of them (not all of course) consist in gratification of the feminine component of the sex instinct, whatever the sex of the person may be?  I find namely that they consist so often in an attack on the dreamer, and so rarely in a frustrated attack by the dreamer.«FN1.××This passage is connected to Jones's self‑analysis, see note 10 to letter 26 and note 7 to letter 31.»

You were good enough to ask for news about the life out here, and if I have not already bored you too much I will tell you a little.  In any case you can read this at some delightful Wiener Café instead of the arid discussions on Von Aerenthal's conduct in the daily papers.«FN1.××Aloys Lexa von Aehrenthal (1854‑1912),  Austrian Foreign Minister, who was at this time involved in heated negotiations with Russia, Serbia, and the Western Powers in securing for Austria‑Hungary the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

»  Well, Canada is larger than Europe (including even Russia) or the United States and has the population of London.  Consequently there is plenty of room here.  Ontario, one of the smaller provinces, has nearly a half of the total population, and is the size of Germany. Toronto is a prettily built town, though the architecture is extremely mixed.  Music is rare here, and there is not a picture gallery in the country.  The people are l9 parts American, and one part Colonial, therefore are very insulted if called Americans. I have always noticed that the more difficult it is to distinguish people (e.g. Norwegians and Swedes, Flemish and Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese), the more insulted they feel at being confused with each other.  They are a despicable race, exceedingly bourgeois, quite uncul~tured, very rude, very stupid and very narrow and pious.  They are naive, childish and hold the simplest views of the problems of life.  They care for nothing except money‑making and sport, they chew gum instead of smoking or drinking, and their public meetings are monuments of sentimental platitudes.  They are horror‑struck with me because I don't know the date of the King's birthday, for they take their loyalty like everything else in dead seriousness«FN1.××The ties between Canada and Britain were very close at this time, see  Carl Berger,  «MDUL»The Sense of Power: Studies in the Ideas of Canadian Imperialism 1867‑1914«MDNM» (Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press, 1970.)

» and have no sense of humour.  The University has 35OO students and is well equipped.  It is naturally not so good as the American or German universities.  I have four appointments here. (1) Demonstrator of Clinical Medicine, which I teach twice a week at the General Hospital (2) Demonstrator of Applied Physiology ×............ university. (3) Pathologist and Neurologist of the Lunatic Asylum.  This appointment Prof. Clark[e] got the government to make for me temporarily until the Psychiatry Clinic is built ‑‑ in about two years' time.  He has promised me the Psychology Department there.  (4) Demonstrator of Psychiatry.«FN1.××Jones's tenure as Associate Professor of Psychiatry was from September 1911 until the end of 1913.  See note 2 to letter 3, and the passage associated with note 5 to letter 1.»  I have to give a course on the psychological aspects of psychiatry after Xmas, which ought to be very interesting, at least for me.  I have of course many other things to do.  For instance, I am reorganising the medical department of the University Library, I review and abstract regularly for six neurological journals in various countries, I edit the Ontario Asylums Bulletin, «FN1.×׫MDUL»Bulletin of the Ontario Hospitals for the Insane«MDNM» (Toronto).

» and am in the middle of writing a large number of articles and three books.  I am at present busy house hunting for my harem, which consists of a wife, two sisters and two servants, being at present in a rented furnished house.«FN1.××Louise (Loe) Dorothea Kann, Jones's common‑law wife;  Elisabeth and Sybil, Jones's younger sisters.

»  No neurology is taught here at all, for there is no one who even pretends to know anything about it.  The current view about hysteria is that it is a discreditable form of imitating diseases, partly with a view to make medical diagnosis harder than it need be and partly out of a reprehensible desire to obtain sympathy by an unfair means.  Treatment consists in telling them that it is no use, for they have been found out.  Hysteria is not rare here, but Angstneurosis is much commoner.

What do you think of the picture?

«IP0,0»It is a wonderful Abreagi[e]ren to be able to write to you, as you may imagine.

«IP4,0»Yours very sincerely  Ernest Jones.