DR. A. A. BRILL
88 CENTRAL PARK WEST
NEW YORK
PATIENTS SEEN BY APPOINTMENT TELEPHONETRAFALGAR 7-8070

Dec 15 - 1934 [sic]

My dear Professor

The check for # 500 you received is for royalties of the Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud, by this time you will have received a copy.  I wrote to you about this long ago and have sent you a check for # 500 to Vienna as soon as I completed the arrangements with the local publisher.  You will note it contains the works which I had translated except Leonardo and Reflexions [sic] on War & PeaceDeath (mistake I wrote Peace).  Some of these books like Totem and Taboo, and Wit were out of print, as was also the history of the P. A. movement.  The others which Jelliffe had, had been paying very little for years.  The Random House who published the work bought all these rights from the various publishers and I practically retranslated all of the works.  The book sells for # 1.25 but

as you see they have already sold many thousands of copies.  At all events the works are together and will be obtainable by students who could not spend $ 17.50 for the originals.  The publishers could have legally published this book without paying anything for it but they were very anxious to have it edited by me so they did whatever I asked them to do.  So far you have received # 1000 which I am sure could nor have come from the original translations.  If you will read my introduction to it you will note that the Nazis came to Vienna just as the book was being finished.  That accounts for the fact that you did not get a copy of it.  As to your right to the royalties we discussed this many years ago and I repeat what I told you then that whereas I have a legal right to them I believe that under the circumstances you should receive them.

I am very happy to know that you got your furniture, collections etc. out of Vienna.  I really think it is quite remarkable.  I am very pleased about it.  By this time I hope you are enjoying your Chow.

Now I would like to ask you about Gioia.  You'll recall that she has married a fine young man and has

a fine boy Tommy 2 1/2 years.  She married at 19 and her husband then went to college in Madison Wisconsin for four years.  We saw them only during vacation and they seemed to get along very nicely.  Soon after they returned to New York and started to keep house I sent Gioia to Dr. Powers for analysis, that is now over four years ago.  The reason for sending her to Powers was anxiety attacks or what I would prefer to call it: short moods of depression which came and went sometimes after a few hours or the longest in a few days.  I first noticed it when she was separated from Phil, (her husband) when she went to college after she had been with him together in High School for about six years.  It was for this reason that we (both parents Gioia's and Phil's) decided to let them get married before they graduated from college.  Phil too felt the separation rather deeply so they married.  During the four years at college he had very few of these symptoms but now and then they came.  Dr. Powers - whose husband Swaney [?] died just about a week ago - then took her for treatment.  I wrote to you at the time and spoke to you about it

when I saw you last.  At first Gioia showed considerable improvement and altogether I might say that she is much better than she has been but she is still subject to the anxieties.  Last In the Spring 1937  Powers wrote me a letter in which she told me that Gioia was well and gave me a dream in which this was shown.  That was the first time that I began to doubt Powers' grasp of the situation.  I hoped that she was right but unfortunately that was not the case.  And since then Gioia had a number of attacks which I can best illustrate by the following:  Before describing any I wish to add that when Powers found that she was wrong she then told me that Gioia might be one of those cases that never get well, that she probably belongs to some of the cases that do not recover.  I did not like this but I left it all to her.  Up to this time I never spoke to Gioia but when Gioia expressed her desire to continue with the analysis I told her to do so and for the first time we discussed the situation.  She said that she now has good insight into the situation that the main difficulty was with her mother who preferred her brother of whom she was very jealous, that her present attacks were jealousy of Dr. Powers,

namely, that she was jealous of another patient, a young man whom Dr P. was treating.  When she would accidentally see him go to Dr. P. when she (Gioia) was leaving she became very irritated and moody which persisted for hours.  She also said that during the first year of analysis she accomplished little because she was very resistive refusing to associate but that for the last 12 years she made great progress and was satisfied with the result.  She wanted to continue daily analysis for six more months when she thought she would be through.  When the six months were over, she spoke to me again and said that she and Powers have decided that she should continue 3 times a week to which I had no objection.  During the whole of last year Gioia wanted to become pregnant and despite everything seeming normal she has not yet become pregnant.  This gives her considerable worry and now and then shows depressive moods and occasionally hysterical crying.

When Swasey [?] Powers died Gioia became very depressed, wondered what Dr. P. would do and stated that she was identifying herself with Dr. Powers, cried and wished to see me to discuss things with me.  This morning Dr. Powers called on me and again expressed the idea that Gioia might be a case who should be kept under observation indefinitely.  I told her that the clinical picture as I see it, does not impress me this way and that perhaps it might be better to change the analyst.  As I see it Gioia is altogether too much attached to Dr. P. and Dr P. said that she, Gioia, is forever worrying what would happen to her if something happened to her analyst.  Dr. Powers said at first, that she would have no objection to a change but did not agree with me that she should go to a male analyst, she wanted me to send her to a female analyst.  About 12 hrs. after this conversation Powers telephoned me that she had an hour with Gioia and that G. feels fine and advised to let matters as they are, and when I met G. a few hours later for luncheon she was quite jovial and in every way normal.  It is my feeling that Powers is at the end of her tether with Gioia and I would appreciate if you could advise me in this matter.  Whatever you will tell me will naturally be confidential.

With my love to you all I am
Brill