To J. H. van der Hoop
Dear Colleague, 26 October 1940
As you will remember, I tendered my resignation at the meeting of delegates in Zurich, July 1939, because I was firmly resolved to give up the running of the Society.
I knew for certain that conditions would arise in the future when I would no longer be in a position to do anything useful.
The precipitate announcement at that time of three new national groups was an unmistakable symptom of developments to come.
I was induced to continue as president until such time as the said groups were accepted.
I have now endeavoured for more than a year to get the necessary documents from these groups but in no case have I succeeded.
One of them hasn’t even been constituted as yet, the other hasn’t sent in its statutes, and the third hasn’t replied at all.
Meanwhile Prof. Goring has been pressing for the acceptance of the three groups.
Since I have not succeeded in carrying out the task allotted to me within a reasonable period, I have felt justified in handing this task back to the Society and making my resignation final.
This decision was welcomed by Prof. Goring, who declared that I was too old anyway to understand the new developments.
Accordingly,at the last Congress of the German group in Vienna, Goring transferred the Society to Germany, on the ground that Germany now had all the necessary international connections to continue the Society-connections with Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, Italy, and Japan.
Our secretary-general, Dr. C. A. Meier, has apprised Prof. Goring of the whole legal position in a special memorandum, to which no reply has been forthcoming.
The situation now is as follows: I have handed over the business management in the interim to Dr. C. A. Meier until such time as an international meeting of delegates becomes possible again.
This interim situation is perfectly understandable because no international business can be conducted under present conditions, with the result that the secretariat is, so to speak, unemployed.
Dr. Meier will pay the moneys due to the German group out of the Society’s funds in Switzerland.
He will preserve the framework of the International Society since the Swiss group considers itself a member.
The International Society consists at present of Sweden, Denmark, England, Switzerland, and Holland.
Through my resignation I have given up the management of the Zentralblatt.
I have been accused by the Germans of making it essentially an organ of my school; hence I have given it up with pleasure.
If you count the number of papers that have appeared from my pen in the Zentralblatt, and the few my pupils have written, you will have to admit that such an accusation is not borne out by the facts.
In Switzerland I have gone to inconceivable trouble to get the psychotherapists together, but find no support among my colleagues, which is due mainly to the sectarian resistance of the Freudians.
Of late I have made no more such attempts but am now leaving it to others to do something about it.
If people find I am standing in their way, it makes no difference to me to resign.
Naturally in the normal course of things an international meeting of delegates should be convened, but as you well know this is not possible under the present conditions.
I myself would be very pleased if a better alliance of psychotherapists in Switzerland and a closer collaboration with Holland were possible, but since my efforts in this respect have proved fruitless I must, as I have said, leave it to others.
Though I am a member of the Swiss Psychotherapy Commission instituted by the Psychiatric Society, and am also president of the Curatorium of a Psychotherapeutic Institute not yet functioning in Zurich because of the war, I must everywhere guard against taking any initiative, otherwise it is immediately thought that I want to monopolize everything.
This idiotic prejudice is a considerable obstacle to cooperation.
That this is not merely Swiss bigotry should be clear to you from the above-mentioned accusation concerning the Zentralblatt.
As I am no longer president, I would ask you to direct all matters relating to the Society to Dr. C. A. Meier.
For the reasons stated, I want to avoid exerting any influence on the affairs of the Society so as to prevent useless upsets.
I would like to bring it to your attention that an article will soon appear in the Zentralblatt in which I am represented as the spokesman of a bygone epoch.
From this you can see how timely my resignation was.
With collegial regards,
Yours sincerely,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 286-288.
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