The Freud/Hall Letters
Document Type
Correspondence
Publication Date
12-29-1908
Keywords
G. Stanley Hall, Sigmund Freud, Clark University, psychoanalysis, 1909 Conference
Description
The second piece of correspondence between G. Stanley Hall and Sigmund Freud. Freud regretfully declines Hall's initial invitation to speak at the 1909 Conference (the bulk of the conference would be postponed to September as Freud and several other invitees could not attend the original July dates).
Clark University's 1909 conference was a celebration of the institution's twentieth anniversary. The conference is most notable for the participation of Sigmund Freud who, along with Carl Jung, would take their first and only trip to America to attend. The five lectures Freud gave, collectively titled “The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis” and subsequently known in print as “Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis”, mark the formal introduction of his theories to the United States.
In lieu of a translation document for this letter, we reproduce the translation as it appears in Freud, Jung, and Hall the King-Maker: The Expedition to America (1909) by Saul Rosenzweig (1992). Rosenzweig's translations are his own and are as faithful to the original translations as possible:
"My esteemed Colleague
Your invitation to offer a series of lectures at your University in the first week of July is a great honor for me, but I do not know how the following difficulty can be overcome. I am a practicing physician and because of the summer habits of my countrymen, I am obliged to discontinue work from July 15 to the end of September. If I were to lecture in America in the first week of July, I should have to suspend my medical work three weeks earlier than usual, which would mean a significant and irretrievable loss for me. This consideration makes it impossible for me to accept your proposal.
With many thanks for the items you send and which arrived earlier
Faithfully yours
Freud"
At the top of the letter is a handwritten note by a Clark affiliate requesting that a translation of this, and another letter, be made.
Recommended Citation
Freud, Sigmund, "(2) Sigmund Freud to G. Stanley Hall, December 29, 1908" (1908). The Freud/Hall Letters. 30.
https://commons.clarku.edu/freudhall/30
