Details
EINSTEIN, Albert. Autograph letter signed ('Papa') to his son Hans Albert, Princeton, 11 January 1935, 2 pages, 4°, on a bifolium; envelope.
EINSTEIN IN THE GRIP OF THE 'MATHEMATICAL DEVIL', A BLAST AGAINST PSYCHOANALYSIS, AND FEARS OF THE ADVANCE OF NAZISM. Einstein has not been answering his son's letters because 'I am so much under the claws of the mathematical devil that I don't get round to any private correspondence; I am pursuing such hopeless goals that my head is good for nothing of a contemplative nature'. He is happy that Hans Albert's work is proceeding, and will gladly fund it, but not 'Tetel's crazy course of treatment. I am as good as sure that the thing with the Viennese doctor [Freud] is a simple swindle', and he is surprised that no one in Zurich has held Mileva back from exacerbating her financial plight in this way -- 'I hate to think what will happen after my death!'. He is concerned to hear that a movement in Switzerland has been instigated by the 'German bandits. But I believe that even in Germany things are changing. One hopes it will not end up in another European war'; German rearmament is dangerous, but is at last being taken seriously. As for Einstein himself, he lives 'a withdrawn life, full of work'; his only recreation is music. He will not be returning to Europe for the forseeable future, because of the stresses that await him there: 'In the end, an old chap has the right to withdraw'.
Einstein's younger son, Eduard (Tetel) had suffered a nervous breakdown in 1933, and was to pursue a variety of treatments, including psychoanalysis, over the course of the 1930s.
EINSTEIN IN THE GRIP OF THE 'MATHEMATICAL DEVIL', A BLAST AGAINST PSYCHOANALYSIS, AND FEARS OF THE ADVANCE OF NAZISM. Einstein has not been answering his son's letters because 'I am so much under the claws of the mathematical devil that I don't get round to any private correspondence; I am pursuing such hopeless goals that my head is good for nothing of a contemplative nature'. He is happy that Hans Albert's work is proceeding, and will gladly fund it, but not 'Tetel's crazy course of treatment. I am as good as sure that the thing with the Viennese doctor [Freud] is a simple swindle', and he is surprised that no one in Zurich has held Mileva back from exacerbating her financial plight in this way -- 'I hate to think what will happen after my death!'. He is concerned to hear that a movement in Switzerland has been instigated by the 'German bandits. But I believe that even in Germany things are changing. One hopes it will not end up in another European war'; German rearmament is dangerous, but is at last being taken seriously. As for Einstein himself, he lives 'a withdrawn life, full of work'; his only recreation is music. He will not be returning to Europe for the forseeable future, because of the stresses that await him there: 'In the end, an old chap has the right to withdraw'.
Einstein's younger son, Eduard (Tetel) had suffered a nervous breakdown in 1933, and was to pursue a variety of treatments, including psychoanalysis, over the course of the 1930s.
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