 Many of Alma's submissions concern purely private experiences that plainly can have left no documentary evidence; nor is there any 'balancing' material from the other side of the marriage — for, in contrast to Alma, Mahler never wrote or spoke (except, perhaps, to Freud) about their relationship.In such circumstances, it is important to remember that the picture we have of Mahler as the typical "fin-de-siècle" artist — an 'ascetic'; a morbid and tormented neurotic; a despairing and sickly man for whom all pleasures were suspect; and a man whose constant overwork undermined an already weak physical constitution — derives entirely from Alma's writings, and is not corroborated by others.For most of his adult life, in fact, Mahler actively enjoyed putting his strength and endurance to the test