To H. G. Baynes
My dear Peter, 20 January 1939
A master at Eton College, a Mr. X., has consulted me. I have sent him to you.
He is at first a somewhat odd individual, but if you take into consideration what a master at a public school might be, it isn’t so bad after all.
He has certainly done rather funny things of which he will tell you.
But I think the Harley Street specialist whom he consulted has done much funnier things.
I just want to tell you that my impression (though hastily built upon one interview) is that this man isn’t really a case.
He is just damn funny and has a dangerous tendency to put the wrong foot forward and to say or do everything that eventually will prove that he is crazy.
But I’m absolutely positive that his feelings are still liquid.
He is appreciative of a friendly and helpful attitude.
He is considerate, he understands and agrees that his behaviour can seem peculiar, and he does understand that his headmaster is reasonably afraid of lunatics and that one should, therefore, not behave as if one were one.
I’m pretty certain that if he has your sympathy (which he deserves, being a kindly man and jackass of an artist) you can keep him straight.
What he also needs is that you have a quiet talk with the headmaster of Eton telling him that many a don has been an odd number and that the things this man has done (at least as much as I know of them) are not very serious; that he is moreover a good teacher, apparently capable of keeping his pupils in order, and that one shouldn’t fire him because it would finish him utterly, being a definite proof that he is crazy; that one should rather give him a fair chance to improve and that the headmaster might even give him occasionally some confidential and paternal advice, slapping him on the back, telling him, for instance, that one shouldn’t race with the boys nor sing low songs in the solemnity of Eton.
Cordially yours,
C.G. Jung Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 258-259