700
HANS MEYERHOFF
as It were, in the private course of self-analysis culminating
in
the
correspondence with Fliess.
Freud's analytic
skill
is an obvious talent displayed at an
early age;
e.g.,
in the penetrating analysis of the suicide of his
friend Nathan Weiss (letter no. 22). Yet it would be a mistake
to say that Freud used letters chiefly for the purpose of analyzing
himself or others. On the contrary, he was a good correspondent
in quite an old-fashioned sense; first, because he was conscientious
beyond the limits of what is humanly possible: according to his
son, "he answered every letter he received . . . and as a rule this
answer was in the post within twenty-four hours"; secondly,
be–
cause he wrote very good letters of a purely descriptive, narrative
kind. He loved to tell a good story and report factual incidents;
he had a fine ear for dialogue and a sharp eye for observing the
world. Here is a postcript from Rome: "Dear children, since
describing the Piazza Colonna to you I have had a good look
at it-one really ought to do so before--and I must correct a few
things. There is indeed a lovely fountain in it, and people sit on
its rim, but trolleys don't pass by, only horse-drawn buses. This
shows how difficult it is to observe correctly. Today, by the way,
was the first time the band didn't play. Fond Greetings. Papa."
The less said about the second half of this collection the
better. Most of the letters here actually duplicate those which
may
be
found in Jones. What we need now for a new look at
Freud is something quite different: not another selection taking
us on a familiar tour at too high a price, but a complete edition
of his correspondence. What we need, in particular, are the letters
(unexpurgated, of course) exchanged between Freud and
his
associates in the psychoanalytic movement.
There are, needless to add, a number of interesting details
in this collection which Jones neglected, but these are minor
matters. The general outline of Freud's personality revealed in the
letters after 1900 corresponds to the features with which we are
familiar from the portrait by Jones. It is the portrait of the old
man who in achieving recognition and fame succumbs increasingly
to thoughts of death and despair.
The idea of death occupied Freud ever since the death
of
his father, in 1896, produced the great crisis which resulted
in
the
