[Smith Ely Jelliffe, American neurologist, psychiatrist, and Freudian psychoanalyst.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Smith Ely-Jelliffe') to 'Culpin', i.e. the psychologist Millais Culpin. regarding his 'salvo' against Sir Francis Martin Rouse Walshe.

Author: 
Smith Ely Jelliffe (1866-1945), American neurologist, psychiatrist, and Freudian psychoanalyst, co-founder of the Psychoanalytic Review [Sir Francis Martin Rouse Walshe; Millais Culpin]
Publication details: 
With stamp of address: 'Smith Ely Jelliffe, M.D. | Huletts Landing, | Washington County, N.Y.' Date stamp: 8 February 1942.
£1,000.00
SKU: 21780

For the recipient the psychologist Millais Culpin (1874-1952), and the subject of the letter the neurologist Sir Francis Martin Rouse Walshe (1885-1973), see the Oxford DNB. 1p, 8vo. On piece of light blue graph paper, with blue ruling. In fair condition, lightly aged, with minor repairs with archival tape. Address in pencil on reverse in another hand: 'B DC | 99. Fernhill Rd, | Cowley, | Oxford.' The letter begins: 'My dear Culpin: | Bravo for your salvo vs. F. M. R. W. Naturally you could not touch the heart of his disorder, i.e. his medieval catholicism. He is an excellent fiber tract mechanical neurologist but as a psychologist not worth his salt & everybody has gone a little dippy on vitamins. One may well wonder why the rabbit is as he is with such a rich carrot diet.' He urges Culpin to 'Keep it up', and asks him to include his address in his letters: 'One never knows if the B[ritish]. M[edical]. J[ournal]. has the time or machinery to transmit letters to their proper address & London W.1. Is a big place.' He concludes: 'Even I who have a galaxy of Who's Who's have no good English Who's Who.' From the distinguished autograph collection of the psychiatrist Richard Alfred Hunter (1923-1981), whose collection of 7000 works relating to psychiatry is now in Cambridge University Library. Hunter and his mother Ida Macalpine had a particular interest in the illness of King George III, and their book 'George III and the Mad Business' (1969) suggested the diagnosis of porphyria popularised by Alan Bennett in his play 'The Madness of George III'.