ABSTRACT
There is no better way to appreciate the great value of these exchanges, than by transcribing part of a letter written on 31 March 1915, in which Abraham postulates sadism as a primary element based on the Freudian ideas that formed the basis of Mourning and Melancholia. Abraham continued to draw conclusions from his manic-depressive patients and observed an interesting parallel with kleptomania, which also stems from the oral phase and represents the biting-off of penis or breast. He observed that the regression of the melancholic had the same aim, only in another form. Abraham did not use a diagnostic classification approach. Genetics always formed a part of his assessment of the level of pathological regression; obsessive neurosis slows down the onset of a severe depression. Two neurotic symptoms have forced me to assume a—let us say, vaginal–anal—pre-stage: frigidity and vaginism.
