FREUD, Sigmund (1856-1939). Autograph letter signed ('Freud') to Gertrud ('Trude') Gutmann, Vienna, 25 March 1929, a letter to an expectant mother, EXPRESSING HIS NEUTRALITY AS REGARDS THE PRACTICE OF CIRCUMCISION: 'So viel ich weiß ist es nicht gelungen eine schädliche Wirkung der aktuellen Beschneidung in der ersten Lebenswoche nachzuweisen. Anderseits lässt sich auch kein realer Nutzen von ihr ableiten. Also haben fromme wie unfromme Eltern in diesem Punkt freie Hand' ('As far as I know no dangerous effects of the current practice of circumcision in the first week after birth have ever been demonstrated. On the other hand no real benefits appear to be derived from it. So observant or non-observant parents have a free hand on this point'); Freud concludes with best wishes for the birth, 2 pages, oblong 8vo, on a correspondence card, envelope; [with] an autograph letter signed by Alfred Adler to the same recipient, New York, 5 April 1929, on the same subject, expressing his opposition to circumcision as constraining the child's free choice, and criticising the observations of 'die Freudianer' on the subject, one page, folio. Provenance: by descent from the recipient. (2)