Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Autograph letter signed ('Freud') to [Arthur] Sweetser, Berggasse 19, Vienna, 28 July 1937
In German. 1½ pages, 290 x 225mm. Provenance: Sotheby's, 6 May 1981, lot 47.

'You have overcome the darkness of the human soul': on the treatment of a young patient. Freud reacts with alarm to news of a terrifying incident affecting Sweetser's son, Harold: 'The sinister illness of your little Harald [sic], his sudden kidnapping from a group of children playing ... all added up to a terrifying overall picture, and had the effect of a paralysis on us'. Freud nevertheless thanks Sweetser for the positive picture he has painted of the psychoanalytic treatment his son had received: 'By making so much of the self-evident care that Harald found here, not emphasizing the uselessness of the analytical work but rather capturing the pleasant picture that it had created and by seizing the opportunity to show your interest and willingness to help our psychoanalysis, you have overcome the darkness of the human soul'. Freud acknowledges receipt of a cheque for $1,000 to support the Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag, and thanks Sweetser for writing a letter to the Rockefeller Foundation in support of psychoanalysis: 'You have taken up the fight against prejudices that are as violent as they are unjust'.

The recipient is presumably the American journalist and statesman Arthur Sweetser (1888-1968).