ALS in German, signed “Freud,” one page, 5.75 x 9, personal letterhead, February 25, 1938. Freud responds to an inquiry from Dr. J. E. King in London. King’s letter, an unsigned retained copy of which is included, reads, in part: “I have been able to follow psycho-analysis in the main, incidentally to apply its findings with many fruitful results, but with regard to the problem of anxiety states, I have frankly to confess that I have not found perfect clarity on this question. The procedure of psycho-analysis postulates that earliest conditions or states of anxiety be sought to explain current reactions, and it has been advanced that this can be traced to the birth situation as the earliest factor of which all following anxiety states are reproductions. If I can here put forward my views, I would accept the birth situation as a starting-point, but would at the same time prefer to delve a little deeper into the birth situation and suggest here that a particular aspect or phase in the development of the foetus directly prior to the birth proper, be the true and earliest manifestation of the condition which appears to me to correspond with anxiety states as observed in adults. The position, in brief, is one of restriction. Let us take for example some well-known symptom in adults which we term an anxiety state. We find this in the case of claustrophobia when the individual expresses fear of a confined area and restriction. We argue in the light of our present knowledge that it is a disguised expression of the wish to return to the womb and the anxiety about this unconscious wish, but if in the original state the foetus felt that its efforts to emerge were meeting restriction, then what is more natural than to assume that intolerable anxiety was being felt, and not until emergence into the world could there have been any relief of tension experienced?... To summarise one would say that the term anxiety could very well be replaced by the word restriction. So that we have in place of anxiety-neurosis this new conception of a ‘restriction neurosis’....” Freud replies, in full (translated): “I just got over an illness that was the reason for my delayed response to your letter. I do not agree with your suggestion of a restriction neurosis and the cause of it. We are accustomed to deducing enervations perceived as fear from restricted internal breathing experienced during the birth process. It does not make any sense to presume that the mere restriction of free movement, absent of any chemical (toxic) effects, should cause such unbearable fear....” Accompanied by the front panel of the original mailing envelope, addressed in Freud’s hand. Mild soiling and wrinkling and a few creases, otherwise fine condition. Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
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