2O August 192O  The Plat  Elsted

Dear Professor,

*IP4,0+We have just arrived here, where I shall be until leaving for Holland, from a tour round Warwickshire, Devonshire, etc., a main object of which, successfully achieved, was to show my wife and make her familiar with the characteristic landscapes and ancient buildings of South England.  I wish we knew if there was any hope of seeing you here after the Congress; it would be an enormous pleasure.

I shall be very glad to have your comments on the Bernays translation and will use them for ours.  I will bring with me two books on Mass psychology to Holland.  I have just read the proofs of your *MDUL+Jenseits des Lustprinzips*MDNM+,*FN1.AAFreud (1920g).+ with mixed feelings ‑‑ deep interest at the contents, and apprehension at the difficulty of translating it, which Rank of course expects me to do on the spot.  Of the two main ideas, one is quite clear to me: the tendency of instincts to repeat an old situation and if possible restore an equilibrium (by the way, how would you translate Wiederholungszwang?).  The second idea, that this is independent of the Lustprinzip, I have so far only imperfectly digested.

[If you are correcting the proofs you might note the following:]*FN1.AACrossed out in the original.+

There is still a misunderstanding about my repression question.  That the unconscious material is constantly striving for expression, to come to consciousness, is plain enough, also that in so doing it attracts into its domain much preconscious material.  But I should not have called the latter process itself repression ‑‑ only a necessary preliminary to repression, the dragging of previously conscious material into a part of the mind which is subject to repression (from the side of consciousness).  What do you think of that formulation?

Rank, Sachs, and I arrive at The Hague on the 5th.  I hope it will be possible for you to do the same, as there is much to discuss, and the committee may be rather tired by the end of the Congress, which will be a very busy one.  27 papers were offered!  I have heard nothing at all from Brill, and Stern says he (Brill) is not coming to the Congress.*FN1.AA6th Congress of the International Psychoanalytic Association, The Hague, 6‑11 September 1920.  A summary of the proceedings is contained in *MDUL+Zeitschrift*MDNM+, 6(1920):376‑402.+

With all good wishes  Yours always affectionately  Ernest Jones