Record of a Friendship

help it. The fault is not mine. Orgonomy is ONE piece of labor, and

not many things. One cannot really at present understand emotions

unless one has learned what orgone energy really is like, looks like, and

how it functions. Let them be on their own, but do not permit them to

hate me because I moved on and work on the whole of human misery.

All the best with love.

Summerhill School

Leiston, Suffolk

My dear Reich,

. I.

October 14, 1951

Your letter [of Oct. 7] makes it all clear; the only unclear
thing to me is the question: Are the cast-out ones malignant or merely
dumm [stupid] or ambitious? The subject of hatred has intrigued me for
some time now. Character A[nalysis], page 169: "The [genital charac­
ter] is capable of intense love but also of intense hatred." Putting aside
for the moment your statement in Oslo days that I was repressing my
hatred all the time, and trying to be objective, I feel like querying the
hate angle. Just as the Freudians found much aggression in every child
they concluded that aggression was the norm, but I find in Zoe little
or no hatred. She wants to give out love, to ask for love, and because in
her environment she satisfies both wishes she is no hate person. Later
when she finds her love attitude met by hate she will react in hate, but
would this be necessary if all kids were free and loved? Why no real
fights among S'hill children?
I grant that my Scandinavian tour influenced me. I kept wondering
why I had so many listeners and so friendly listeners. Why, I asked
friends, do the Swedes etc. show so much interest in freedom yet don't
practise it in their schools? The answer I got was: "It isn't only freedom,
Neill, it is your personality. An audience feels a warmth and sincerity
coming from you and it reacts accordingly. Even people who don't agree
with you at all about freedom and children, feel friendly to you and
that accounts for the lack of criticism and nasty questions after you
lecture." This looks as if I am patting myself on the back saying: Good
old Neill! Wonderful guy! But I am trying to see what is behind it all.
I am sure that it is this part of myself that has made S'hill a success for
30 years ... the absence of expressed hatred on my part.