To Oluf Briel
Dear Colleague, 19 March 1934
The disagreement between your views and Dr. Bjerre's is known to me.
I would not like to advocate an independent lay analysis.
In this respect I hold a position in the middle.
My experience over the years has convinced me that lay assistants of doctors can often do very useful work, but I abide by the principle that lay analysis should always
remain under the control of the doctor.
If you cannot come to agreement with Dr. Bjerre, it is quite conceivable that the founding of two Societies should be kept in mind.
Because of the political conditions the German Society is a separate Society anyway and our future international organization must be prepared to take these facts into
account.
For the Nauheim Congress of the German Society, which takes place on May 10th, I shall work out a draft of new statutes which will then be submitted for ratification to a committee of delegates from all the national groups.
I too have regretted that Goring's Nazi manifesto appeared in the Zentralblatt.
I erroneously assumed that this edict was intended for the German issue.
Owing to the distance and the delay this causes I am not always au courant with everything that is going on.
But I have given the managing editor strict instructions to keep the Zentralblatt neutral.
For this reason I have also refused to let my introductory article, coming out shortly in the Zentralblatt, appear in the special German issue, against the wishes of my German colleagues.
I shall also endeavour to keep the international organization on absolutely neutral ground and to regulate the relations between the groups by special statutes in such a way that it is impossible for any one group, no matter how numerous its members may be, to influence the policy of the Society as a whole.
At present I plan to have two delegates selected from each national group who will sit on a special committee that has to ratify the statutes.
Germany like any other group will also be represented by only two members.
I shall get the complicated legal conditions clarified so far as possible beforehand by a competent jurist.
I have also charged Dr. Cimbal with the task of getting information from a competent quarter as to whether ratification of international statutes is possible at ail in present-day Germany.
If it is not, I would send my draft of the statutes as a circular to the ·various representatives of the national groups.
I have told my publisher of your wish to review my book.
In conclusion, I would ask you to inform all those who have misgivings because of the political conditions in Germany that I stand on strictly neutral ground and that the German doctors are compelled only by the special circumstances of the time to make a political declaration of faith.
Medical work, however, is an international affair, as already laid down by the Geneva Convention.
Thank you very much for kindly sending me your interesting offprints, also for the Danish communication, which I shall pass on to the managing editor.
With collegial greetings,
Yours sincerely,
C. G. JUNG ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 151-152
