Record of a Friendship

[ 1936-1939 ]^6

hopelessness of our great time under which we are suffering. That works
hard upon the poor mistreated human structure. Don't mind my being
busy. I shall surely have time enough for you.

Summerhill School
Leiston, Suffolk

Dear Dr. Reich,

• • •

November 2I , I9 37

Sorry for delay in answering; I have been in Scotland burying
my oId father. I am delighted at the prospect of coming over to study
even if for so short a time with you. There is a growing body of opinion
in scientific circles in this country that you have made the greatest ad­
vance in psychology since Freud began the psychology of the Uncon­
scious. I am taking steps to get your books translated into English, for
they are full of new ideas and a completely new technique. As you prob­
ably know I am called the most advanced child psychologist in the
country, but I realise that I can learn much from you, and I think it
splendid that you are giving me the opportunity to come and do so.
Your Character-Analyse* is the finest thing I have come across for
many years.
I shall come as soon after Christmas as possible and can stay until
the middle of January.

• ••

Oslo, Norway
November 24, I9 37
Dear N eill!t
I shall expect you sometime around Christmas. I am most
grateful to you for the things you say. In this terrible time you are
a great support in the fight. Freud once said to me, in connection with
the analytic concept of "cultural repression": "Either you are on

* Charakteranalyse, 1933 (Character Analysis, revised English edition, 19 45;

expanded edition, 19 49, 1972 ). A psychoanalytic investigation of the various char­

acter structures that grow out of the need to preserve repressions against release

and recognition, and of the socio-economic forces that promote them.

t Translated from the original German.