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26 March 1934
42 York Terrace, Regents Park
Dear Professor,
I do not often have occasion to consult you about a patient, let alone a member of your own family. Yesterday we were in the country and took the opportunity of calling on Lucie1 in Yeovil. I had better give you the full story as I understand it. On the momentous motor trip she was disturbed by the fact that the man was not able to drive and very apprehensive, with right, about the woman's driving. She begged a man to take her place in driving, but this could not be done. Five minutes before the accident she sent off a postcard at a stopping place and thought to herself it would probably be the last postcard she would ever send; I think it was to her mother. This seems to me already excessive. When the accident happened she went off into a pleasant dream that everything was all right and she was very happy. I read this as a strong Reizschutz with vigorous denial of reality, based on the assertion that her infantile fears (? danger from the mother) [might]2 could never come true in reality. She was in fact astonishingly well and only the bleeding from the ear revealed that there was trouble. The Doctor, whom I saw at the hospital yesterday, told me he was astonished to find that there was much greater shock on the second day than on the first. After this, however, she rapidly improved for two or three weeks. Now in the last ten days comes the problem of once more facing life and she has been very depressed, frequently crying, feeling she is not equal to her duties in life, reproaching herself on this score, and suffering very great weakness and giddiness when she gets up. Moreover, when she gets up she has severe pain on one side of the head as though it had been struck by a blow, i.e. delayed response to the accident. There can at present be no possible organic explanation, for even the weakness goes beyond what might be expected in the circumstances. I am very concerned lest she be laying the basis for a t