Formal Defense

Sir:

DELIGHTED TO SEE THAT WAVE OFFICERS NOW HAVE FORMAL EVENING UNIFORMS [TIME, NOV. 1]. RECOMMEND LIBERAL INCREASE IN NAVY BUDGET FOR SUCH VITAL NATIONAL DEFENSE PROJECTS.

W. WALTER HAYUM

Reading, Pa.

P: Note to Reader Hayum: officers buy their own.--ED.

The Id & I

Sir:

Resounding plaudits to TIME for a remarkably lucid and informative article on psychiatry [TIME, Oct. 25]. If I may be permitted so metaphysical an expression, my faith in journalism as a vital factor in public education is renewed.

THOMAS JACKSON INGRAM III

Washington, B.C.

Sir:

. . . The ones who are being "done good" are the psychoanalysts at $25 per hour for a couch seance that the patient could get from any fortune-teller for a dollar . . .

D. S. HAYES, M.D.

Washington, D.C.

Sir:

. . . You present a difficult and controversial subject . . . with a sort of Olympian understanding and detachment, and perhaps a sublime tolerance . . . But . . . isn't there a misprint under the picture [by Artzybasheff] ? Shouldn't it be "We Are Getting to the Bottom of Id" (not "It")? . . .

W. GORDON

Ross Berea, Ky.

Sir:

... It seems to me that . . . Dr. Will Menninger's campaign to sell a regrettably oversold psychiatry to the U.S. public might better have won the story a Business head rather than Medicine.

I would [also] like to take issue with you on ... the overemphasis of conflict in the human personality. One could easily assume therefrom that mental health is reachable through the elimination of conflict. This is not so. Conflict is as natural to man as his desire to avoid it . . .

It would have been better to posit the situation in terms of balance. Then you would have reminded your readers of a basic truth--that emotional buoyancy and mental stability come, not so much from the resolution of conflict, but from the ability of the personality to maintain a balance between drives of varying intensity . . .

You quote Dr. Menninger as saying: "One does not have to know the cause of a fire to put it out." While I have long suspected that some doctors simply buried their mistakes, I had hoped that psychiatrists at least analyzed theirs. Did the good doctor ever try to put out an oil fire the same way he'd douse a paper one ?

JACK PERLIS

Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sir:

MENNINGER ARTICLE IS OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO MENTAL HYGIENE MOVEMENT. CONGRATULATIONS.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Southern California Society for Mental Hygiene

Los Angeles, Calif.

Sir:

... As suggested by TIME, I read the article in connection with Religion . . . The religionists have it, by far. For whether you "renounce" with Buddha, "resign" with Thomas `a Kempis, or "respect the Infinite" with Santayana, the end result in each case will be the same: the "peace of mind" of Rabbi Liebman.

For those who are in earnest about this pursuit, couches are unnecessary . . .

GEORGE DE HAAN

Monrovia, Calif.

R.A.F. Lift

Sir:

Whilst appreciating your very human account of the splendid service the U.S. Air Force is giving Berliners through the air lift [TIME, Oct. 18] . . . I was disappointed at your failure to make any comment upon the equally determined efforts of the Royal Air Force.

I am sure your own Air Force would . . . supply you with facts & figures of the R.A.F.'s share in the great humane joint effort.

H. R. J. MACAVOY

London, England

P: Although handicapped by planes generally smaller than those used by the U.S. Air Force, the R.A.F. has delivered 136,911 tons of cargo to Berlin -- 30% of the total airlift--ED.

Medea from the Waist Up

Sir:

I am enchanted, as well as relieved, by your assurance that Miss Judith Anderson has never considered "playing Medea naked from the waist up (as Euripides intended)" [TIME, Oct. 25], but I wish that you had given us your source of information as to Euripides' intentions. Since his Medea was played by a husky male whose head was encased in the huge mask-apparatus, whose stature was increased by the kothornos, and whose hieratic vestments excluded any suggestion or realism, it is difficult to imagine--except in terms of Salvador Dali--the effect which you suggest . . .

DUDLEY FITTS

Andover, Mass.

P: Reader Fitts will find it easier to imagine TIME red from the neck up.--ED.

The 1952 Olympics

Sirs:

... "A group of sports-conscious Detroiters asked the city to build a $14,500,000 stadium with 104,000 seats and a removable roof. Reason: it would provide a handy site for the 1952 Olympic Games if Finland (the host apparent) is unable to hold them" [TIME, Oct. 25].

We Finns . . . firmly believe that we will be able to arrange the 1952 Olympic Games in our capital city Helsinki to the satisfaction of all the participating athletes and visiting sports fans from throughout the world.

All the necessary steps for the preliminary work have already been taken in connection with the preparations for the 1940 Games, so that the Organization Committee has a good start for the 1952 Games. The Helsinki Stadium, together with special stadia for swimming contests, rowing, horseback-riding, wrestling, etc., are already built . . . The Helsinki main Stadium has accommodations for more than 80,000 persons . . .

K. T. JUTILA

Minister of Finland

Washington, B.C.

Toleration

Sir:

We do not have to love Mrs. Roosevelt to realize you have written a good piece captioned "First Lady" [TIME, Oct. 25]. I am among those who have doubtlessly been unfair in our judgment of her, but it is wholesome to see an able pen give her her due in . . . TIME.

I got as great a lift out of the oblique slap your writer gave Pegler, who is execrated by most fair and decent people for his character assassinations ... It is refreshing to read again & again your words "... Westbrook Pegler (whose continued toleration is all the proof anyone should need that the U.S. press is free) . . ."

D. K. LIBBY

Tulsa, Okla.

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