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18th July 1958.
Dear Dr. Laing,
Yesterday I had my first chance to read your MS,1 which I insulted by getting through it in two hours. You will understand from this that I did not do it justice. After reading it I tried to ring you up because I was so excited. I suppose my excitement had to do with the fact that you make so much use of the sort of things that I think important. Certainly you are very generous in your attributions.
It is possible that in your build-up at the beginning you are talking to yourself quite a bit. This may be a good way of starting a book but I did not really get interested until I was about a third of the way through. I hope the book gets published soon and that from there you may get on to making a more concise theoretical statement.
Incidentally I learned something from your book which is always exciting; something you said about being watched in paranoid states made me see that one of my patients is being watched by a projection of her true self. This is something I had not thought of and it helps me very considerably.
Thank you very much for letting me see the MS. I look forward to reading the book.
Yours sincerely,