Letter from Sigmund Freud: Wayne Mergler

In 1925, Sigmund Freud wrote this in a letter to Lou Andreas-Salomé.

"Dearest Lou,

First of all let me thank your dear old man for the kind lines he wrote to me, a stranger. May he keep going as long as he himself wants to!

As for me, I no longer want to ardently enough. A crust of indifference is slowly creeping up around me; a fact I state without complaining. It is a natural development, a way of beginning to grow inorganic. The ‘detachment of old age,' I think it is called. It must be connected with a decisive turn in the relationship of the two instincts postulated by me. The change taking place is perhaps not very noticeable; everything is as interesting as it was before, neither are the ingredients very different; but some kind of resonance is lacking; unmusical as I am, I imagine the difference to be something like using the [piano] pedal or not."