Record of a Friendship

Forest Hills, New York
March 18, 1942
My dear Neill:
I had your letter of January 18th at the end of February. It
was good to hear that things are quite all right with you.
Our International Journal and my new book are just coming out. You
will receive enough copies through Dr. Wolfe. It would be very im­
portant and useful if you could provide our journal with typical and
significant descriptions of children's behavior under the circumstances
of freedom and non-freedom. We shall print them gladly and I think that
it would also help your cause to have them printed. I believe the most
important task would be to elaborate the problems which arise in
children who were brought up in a more or less disguised authoritative
manner and who encounter for the first time freedom of movement,
thought and utterance. We always agreed upon the one point that it is
not so much the content of a free life, but the fear of freedom which
concerns all of us. There would, without doubt, be no dangerous
problems in freedom if the people and the children were not afraid of
it and if they did not long for the guidance of authority.
Which chapter of which of your books would you like to have re­
printed in the journal? Let us also know, please, to what extent you
succeed in distributing the journal and the book. So far, the journal is
being received here with great appreciation.
Please do not fail to keep in touch with me and write as frequently
as possible. My regards to Erna and all the other friends unknown.

Summerhill School

Festiniog, North Wales

My dear Reich,

• • •

April 28, 1942

Number I of the journal has arrived. I must congratulate

Wolfe; it is splendid. Some of it is above my head ... no layman can

grasp words like parasympatheticotonia, but I feel strongly that one need

not know anatomy and physiology to grasp the essentials of Vegeto­

Therapy. To see them in English when I am unconscious of the language

is truly delightful. Reich, the magazine is full of dynamite; it impresses

more and more on me what I have long felt-that you are the only