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III

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

I am very pleased by what you tell me about this man’s relations with his e The Eneing more and more of the patient’s conduct under the new standard, and may reach his behaviour to the old lady at any et in first Keep in close touch with our colleague Glubose who is in charge of the ood settled habit ofmethods are useful

1 Keep hisinside him and his attention is therefore chiefly turned at present to the states of his own ated version of thee this Keep hisit to the ravate that lect of the obvious Youhim to a condition in which he can practise self-exa any of those facts about himself ,which are perfectly clear to anyone who has over lived in the same house with him or worked the same office

2 It is, no doubt, i for histhe prayers innocuous Make sure that they are always very "spiritual", that he is always concerned with the state of her soul and never with her rheues follow In the first place, his attention will be kept on what he regards as her sins, by which, with a little guidance from you, he can be induced toto hi the wounds of the day a little sorer even while he is on his knees; the operation is not at all difficult and you will find it very entertaining In the second place, since his ideas about her soul will be very crude and often erroneous, he will, in soinary person, and it will be your task to inary person daily less and less like the real ued old lady at the breakfast table In tiht or feeling froined mother will ever flow over into his treatment of the real one I have had patients of my own so well in hand that they could be turned at a moment’s notice from impassioned prayer for a wife’s or son’s "soul" to beating or insulting the real wife or son without a qualether for many years it usually happens that each has tones of voice and expressions of face which are al fully into the consciousness of your patient that particular lift of his mother’s eyebrohich he learned to dislike in the nursery, and let him think how much he dislikes it Let hi it is and does it to annoy - if you know your job he will not notice the immense improbability of the assumption And, of course, never let him suspect that he has tones and looks which similarly annoy her As he cannot see or hear hied

4 In civilised life dos which would appear quite harmless on paper (the words are not offensive) but in such a voice, or at such a moment, that they are not far short of a blow in the face To keep this game up you and Glubose must see to it that each of these two fools has a sort of double standard Your patient must demand that all his own utterances are to be taken at their face value and judged si all his mother’s utterances with the fullest and most oversensitive interpretation of the tone and the context and the suspected intention She ed to do the sao away convinced, or very nearly convinced, that they are quite innocent You know the kind of thing: "I simply ask her what time dinner will be and she flies into a tehtful situation of a hu and yet having a grievance when offence is taken

Finally, tell ious position Is she at all jealous of the new factor in her son’s life? - at all piqued that he should have learned froood opportunity of learning in childhood? Does she feel he is etting in on very easy terms? Remember the elder brother in the Enemy’s story, Your affectionate uncle

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