Nov. 26, 1917.Dear Miss Turner,
Your card came yesterday. I know of no plan in Boston or vicinity that adopts an enlightened attitude in these matters. Boston Psychopathic is hopeless & harps on an organic basis. Bloomingdale in White Plains, N.Y. is up to date but it is a large mental hospital & she'd never go there. I don't think she needs hospital care exactly, if she could find a person who could gain her confidence & with whom she would cooperate in thorough discussion & ventilation of her personal conflicts & problems. It is a delicate job from many standpoints. First one has to "get at" his patient; then tear down all his defence mechanisms until he comes to innate difficulties of adjustment of which the patient is often entirely unconscious; [toning? got?] at this complex material the next step is to convince the patient what his whole trouble is & show him (often by leading the way step by step for months at a time) just how to overcome his weakness & develop along the desired lines. I know of no rule of thumb to guide on in such an analysis. Each case is a problem by itself. Personally I never go at two people the same way. I would not trust Alice to a professional psychoanalist of the strict Freudian school. For I fear they'd plunge her into a lot of sex stuff that would disgust her reason & common sense. This sounds as though there is no place but Talt. to have the right trick done, & I guess there is a good deal of trust in it. I am a profound believer in the methods & their results of our great chief, Adolf Meyer.
Did I write you of attending Dr. Mall's funeral? The impressive feature was the collection of faculty who attended in a uniformed body. The service was held in a Unitarian church, but was not even Unitarian. It consisted of music, a few proverbs & a poem nobody recognized. It sounded like an Oriental invocation to Buddah or Mohammed. "Allah" presided. Not a ray of warm light from the Gospels fell upon that great assembly. The Christ who stands with outstretched hands in the entrance of our Hospital seemed far away. Dr. Mall was an atheist, & great scientist that he was, he died like an atheist. As I sat during the services I could but repeat the lines. "Man that is in honor & understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish."
In marked contrast to this pagan funeral was a lecture Fri. night by Dr. Gunfel who is just from France. It was given in the Phys. Bldg. & the room was packed to standing & window-silt [sic] capacity with students, Drs. nurses & outsiders. It did my soul good to hear this man get up before a group of distinguisedh scientists & say, "I believe that God is behind this universe, & though I cannot with my limited vision see why human being must suffer & die as they are doing just now, I know it is for some good."
The great trouble with many scientific giants today is that they grow enslaved by what they can grow in a test tube, by what they can see thru' a microscope, or do with electricity. The great Edison has looked so long on the things he is able to do with electricity that he now openly declares he does not believe in any power outside man & the material objects which surround him. To my mind Dr. Clapp's great contribution to College is not her scientific assets nor yet her teaching of scientific accuracy. It his [sic] rather in the broad conception of science which she impressed on all her students. She took an aggressive stand towards the materialistic tendencies of science; and those of her students who have done graduate work since College can alone appreciate what her precept & example have meant to them. It is not enough for us professional scientists & teachers of science to remain passive towards this great issue, though it is an easy way. We can dodge questions with, "I don't like to express an opinion on such matters. ... really I'm in no position to discuss it. ... I can't take a Bible class because I'm not sure enough of myself. ... This is a matter for individual decision." etc. Dr. Osler doesn't do it; Dr. Finney [?] doesn't do it, & Dr. Clapp didn't do it. Dr. C lugged her guns right into Embryology & fired first. One always knew where to find her when he had a perplexing question. And she lived her opinions which I believe are the source of her continual vitality & youth. On Sunday she was in church, not from a sense of duty to set an example to the young, but because she enjoyed it & needed it. Her Bible class was not a lordship, but a joyful opportunity to express her conception of the meaning of life.
Well, I've drifted far afield. But at times I am sick at heart with the narrow, complacent attitude all around me. We are so damned satisfied with our little 2 x 4 ideas of the world around us.
Good night,