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Saint Agnes’ Asylum for the Deranged
Near Weobley, Herefordshire
Friday, 18th October, 1928
Dear Sir,
I apologize for this unsolicited correspondence, but pray you may do me the favour of reading through it and considering the request. I have received your name from Dr. Kaplan, who says that you are an excellent student and one of the “bohemian” type. I am a consulting doctor at Saint Agnes’ Asylum in Herefordshire and would like to ask you to consult on how to proceed in the matter of an inmate’s case. If I may prevail upon you, these are an outline of the facts.
Patient ‘W’ is a young man from a good line whom, having no employ, spent much of his time before his admission in private study, artistic work, and interactions of a degenerate type. In the autumn of 1925, a terrible incident occurred, and W’s father and sister were left murdered. W, much troubled, was committed to this asylum shortly thereafter upon the application of his brother and the diagnosis of the family physician.
Patient W suffers from extended bouts of scotophobia which give him temporary but intense anxiety. This has proved treatable with medication and I am of the happy opinion that I may recommend his release when his period of mandatory confinement comes to an end this November. Here the problem arises: W’s brother has been urging me to recommend his continued residence. This kind of disagreement is not uncommon.
I do not want to disrespect the wishes of the family, but it does not sit well with me to keep a man in confinement when he is suited to a less restrictive environment. W is known to speak in an unusual manner and do unusual things, but is he truly mad? An unconventional manner of life is not the same as an organic disease of the brain. But I am a reserved man and unfamiliar with the ‘bohemian’ way of life myself. I fear I am unable to distinguish madness and ordinary behavior for one of an artistic cast of mind, and I would not wish to free my patient were he truly unable to live in the ordinary world.
Again, I regret this communication without our previous introduction, but I hope you and a few friends may consent to consult on this matter. In your opinion, is W’s behavior to be expected from a poet in the 1920s? Obviously, all I say must be kept in the strictest confidence.
I shall be visiting London for a few days beginning the 28th October. I shall be staying at the Great Western Hotel. Please contact me there should you and a few of your friends be willing to meet.
Your obliged and obedient servant,
Leo Aarons
