The book of the it : psychoanalytic letters to a friend / by Georg Groddeck. Authorized translation furnished and revised by the author.

  • Georg Groddeck
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The book of the it : psychoanalytic letters to a friend / by Georg Groddeck. Authorized translation furnished and revised by the author. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    at table to give the Latin for “tear.” He didn’t know it, but for some reason or other I had noticed the word lacrima the evening before whilst he was memorizing his vocabulary, and so I answered in his place. As a reward I was given a five-groschen piece. After the meal my two brothers asked me to exchange this for a smoothly polished three-pfenning piece, which I joy¬ fully did. Besides the desire to put the bigger boys in the wrong, some dim emotional memories must have influenced me in this. I will tell you later, if you like, what the word lacrima signifies to me. The second incident raises my spirits whenever I remember it. As a grown-up man, later, I wrote a story for my children in which appeared a withered, dried-up old maid, a learned person who taught Greek and was much derided. To this offspring of my fancy, flat-chested and bald, I gave the name “Dreier.” Thus did my flight from the first, forgotten pain of separation make out of that maid, so alive and loving, who had fed me and to whom I clung, the image that represents science to me. What I have written is certainly serious enough, at least for me, but whether it is what you wished to get from our corres¬ pondence, the gods alone can say. However that may be, I am still, as ever, your very faithful, Patrik Troll. LETTER II Fair lady, you are not pleased; is there too much of the per¬ sonal in my letter, and you would have me objective? But I thought I had been! Let us see then; what I wrote about was the choice of a profession, certain aversions, and an inner conflict which lasted from childhood onwards. Certainly I spoke of my¬ self, but these experiences are typical, and if you apply them to others there is much that you will learn to understand. One thing above all will become clear to you, that our lives are gov¬ erned by forces that do not lie open to the day, but must first be laboriously sought out. I wanted to show by an example, by my own example, that a great deal goes on in us which lies outside our accustomed thought. But perhaps it would be better if I told you at once my purpose in my letters, and then you will be able to decide whether the theme is sufficiently serious. If once I drop into chit chat or into fine writing, you must tell me; that will help us both.
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