I am looking for a larger house. I am turning away dozens of new
pupils and could have a large school now. The school goes well. The
kids are great, and when I lecture I get bigger and more enthusiastic
audiences.
The war looks like being very long now. I fear it will be some time
before we meet in New York.
My wife fails fast and is most pathetic to see now. Paralysed partly,
and conscious of what it all means. It is a grim life to see one who was
energetic and capable go downhill like that.
I seldom practice psychology now. I have become · a teacher of maths
and English because men are scarce; an office boy half my time because
my secretary is in the army. My whole life is changed, but since I no
longer take in problem children, the school runs happily with freedom
alone. My own love life runs smoothly and happily.
I hear that a little girl I had for a short time is a refugee in N.Y. and
has been treated by a Reichian. I'd like to hear about her, for she was
a most introverted little thing with a stomach like iron and a hate like
steel.
I am not writing any books now. Most of the stock of myoId ones
has been blitzed, and there are no copies of Problem Child and
Problem Parent* left. I have no desire to write; things change so rapidly
that what one writes today seems out of date tomorrow.
Odd thing, I have a postcard from a British Air Officer, a prisoner in
Oflag [officer's camp] IV, saying he had my problem books sent out to
him and could I recommend other books on psychology. Queer, isn't it,
for my books are strongly anti-Hitler. I wonder why they allow them to
enter Germany.
What's the future? I feel it belongs to Russia, China and India. They
have the great masses. The days of empire seem to be shortening rapidly.
I'm afraid that our rule by one class hasn't been too successful.
Well, goodbye for a time, old friend. I think of you often and Erna
and I often say: "Pity Willi Reich isn't here tonight."
- I •
* The Problem Parent (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1932 ). Neill argues that
even the most difficult child was probably made so by parental mishandling. He
describes the various ways in which parents stifle and distort their children's
natural healthy development.