![FREUD, Sigmund. Autograph letter signed ('Freud') to Dr [Wulf] Sachs, Berggasse 19, Vienna, 2 April 1933, 1½ pages, large 4to (287 x 228mm) (minor marginal soiling and wear, tape repairs to folds in blank portion of verso, touching one letter).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_01568_0026_000(freud_sigmund_autograph_letter_signed_to_dr_wulf_sachs_berggasse_19_vi092142).jpg?w=1)
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FREUD, Sigmund. Autograph letter signed ('Freud') to Dr [Wulf] Sachs, Berggasse 19, Vienna, 2 April 1933.
1½ pages, large 4to (287 x 228mm) (minor marginal soiling and wear, tape repairs to folds in blank portion of verso, touching one letter).
ON THE ANAL STAGE AND THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX. Freud writes to a South African psychoanalyst with a commendation for a series of lectures the latter intends to publish, describing them as ‘an instructive and valuable introduction into the science of psychoanalysis, which is so hard to depict’ (eine lehrreiche und wertvolle Einführung in die so schwer darstellbare Wissenschaft der Psychoanalyse), noting that this recommendation is available for publicity purposes. On Sachs’s reports of difficulties, Freud is not at all surprised – ‘Why should it be different in South Africa from elsewhere?’. He goes on to make a number of specific comments on the manuscript, particularly in regard to Sachs’s presentation of the anal stage (‘Daß ich den Analcharakter vor der Libidoentwickl[un]g beschreibe, ist nicht richtig’), and to the presentation of the Oedipus complex, noting that whilst childhood passions are as a general rule openly voiced, oedipal emotions tend to be unconscious only after their renewal during puberty (‘Ubw [i.e. Unbewusst] sind die Oedip.-Regungen zumeist bei ihrer Erneuerung in der Pubertätszeit’), adding a further note about the development of consciousness with a warning against drawing conclusions from brain anatomy, and concluding with warm wishes on the endeavours of Sachs and his colleagues.
The pioneer of psychoanalysis in South Africa, Wulf Sachs began his training in 1929. His key work is Black Hamlet (1937), a ground-breaking psychoanalytical biography of a black Zimbabwean traditional healer named John Chavafambira (The Freud Encyclopedia (2002), p.13).
1½ pages, large 4to (287 x 228mm) (minor marginal soiling and wear, tape repairs to folds in blank portion of verso, touching one letter).
ON THE ANAL STAGE AND THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX. Freud writes to a South African psychoanalyst with a commendation for a series of lectures the latter intends to publish, describing them as ‘an instructive and valuable introduction into the science of psychoanalysis, which is so hard to depict’ (eine lehrreiche und wertvolle Einführung in die so schwer darstellbare Wissenschaft der Psychoanalyse), noting that this recommendation is available for publicity purposes. On Sachs’s reports of difficulties, Freud is not at all surprised – ‘Why should it be different in South Africa from elsewhere?’. He goes on to make a number of specific comments on the manuscript, particularly in regard to Sachs’s presentation of the anal stage (‘Daß ich den Analcharakter vor der Libidoentwickl[un]g beschreibe, ist nicht richtig’), and to the presentation of the Oedipus complex, noting that whilst childhood passions are as a general rule openly voiced, oedipal emotions tend to be unconscious only after their renewal during puberty (‘Ubw [i.e. Unbewusst] sind die Oedip.-Regungen zumeist bei ihrer Erneuerung in der Pubertätszeit’), adding a further note about the development of consciousness with a warning against drawing conclusions from brain anatomy, and concluding with warm wishes on the endeavours of Sachs and his colleagues.
The pioneer of psychoanalysis in South Africa, Wulf Sachs began his training in 1929. His key work is Black Hamlet (1937), a ground-breaking psychoanalytical biography of a black Zimbabwean traditional healer named John Chavafambira (The Freud Encyclopedia (2002), p.13).
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