"What will we do if the barbarous Hitlerism in Germany locks us out of the market?"
Autograph letter signed ("Freud").
8vo. 2 pp. In German.
€ 18,500.00
To the Hungarian-American psychoanalyst and physician Franz G. Alexander (1891-1964) on the foundation of a new institute, a "stupid and malicious" attack from an old acquaintance, and the threat from "barbarous Hitlerism".
Freud is happy to hear news from Alexander of his recently-founded Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis: "It is good of you to keep me up to date with what's going on in your young institute. It is even better that as a young and strong man you hold on to your optimism and use it as the engine that drives your work". He cautions Alexander against setting himself a goal of ensuring the reception of psychoanalysis into the organisation of the university: "It is currently not desirable; at a later point, it may come of its own accord". A few days previously, Bernard Sachs had sent Freud his "stupid and malicious" article, "The false claims of the Psychoanalyst" (published in The American Journal of Insanity, January 1933). Freud recalls that he worked with Sachs in 1882: "He was then red-haired and very nice, neither probably any longer now". He mentions the work of his son Martin in reorganising the Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag, before wondering gloomily: "What will we do if the barbarous Hitlerism in Germany locks us out of the market?".
Franz Gabriel Alexander was associated with the Berlin Psychoanalytical Institute from 1921 to 1930, during which period he analysed Freud's third son, Oliver; from 1930 his career was essentially based in Chicago, initially as Visiting Professor of Psychoanalysis at the University of Chicago, and from 1932 as the founder of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.
Provenance: Sotheby's, 6 May 1981, lot 46.
On stationery with Freud's personal letterhead. A small sketch of an unfinished table on reverse, apparently drawn by the recipient. Small traces of handling. All quotes translated from German.
