lo                              E. James Lieber7//a7i

is there." He told Mary Plowden, "Read my books and put them
away; don't act on them."

There was warmth but no physical touching. Rank did not
seem bound by the clock (once an analyst had ushered her out in
mid-sentence!) and sometimes he walked to the elevator and
waited with her. He was available by telephone when she needed
to reach him. Once, at the elevator, unpremeditated and shyly,
she asked Rank to come to a New Year's party. "Not yet, not yet,
but someday I will," he replied.

Mrs. Plowden asked Rank about keeping her young son out of
school. Both parents were artists: she an accomplished pianist, he
an actor and painter. They thought it might be better for their
son to be without structured teaching for a while. "No," said
Rank, "he must go to school. We don't know what he is going
to have to fit into when he is thirty, but that he will have to fit in
is sure." Freedom within structure was the guiding principle. An¬
other time she was sitting in a park with a mother from the slums.
"Both our children wanted to pick leaves off a hedge. I remon¬
strated with mine and he continued to do it. She swatted hers and
that was the end of it. Later I told Rank I thought I should have
swatted mine, too. He said, 'Oh, no, that is not your way: you
have to be sincere in what you do if it is to be effective.'

"With Rank there was no dogma. Everything was open from
minute to minute. Nothing was imposed on you. He wanted you
to open up and be as you might want to be but didn't dare to be.
Talking about my husband, he said, 'You might not like what he
turns out to be.' I felt this as a subtle suggestion to let go of any
preconceived idea of what he was. It must be a process of finding
out, «-ithoiit any restrictions."

Although Rank was neither dogmatic nor theoretical, he had a
point of view, a philosophy. "There was a great firmness of stand¬
point, at the same time with great fluidity on his part, so you
couldn't label the philosophy. You would rely on him very much
during some phases of the work. There was an overwhelming