The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
Meerloo, Joost Abraham Maurits, 1903-1976

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Descriptive Summary

Record Group: Section A - Correspondence

Dates of materials: 1962-1967

Volume: 24 item(s); 43 pg(s)

Scope and Content

This is a file in the correspondence of Thomas Merton under the heading: "Meerloo, Joost Abraham Maurits".

Biography

Dr. Joost A.M. Meerloo was a Dutch-born psychoanalyst specializing in the area of thought control techniques used by totalitarian regimes. Most of his family were killed by the Nazis, but he escaped to England in 1942 from a Nazi prison in the Netherlands. In 1946, he emigrated to the United States and took residence in New York where he continued to writes books and continue his practice as a psychoanalyst. He coined the term "mentacide", the killing of the mind as employed in brain-washing techniques. After writing to each other for since 1962, Meerloo visits Gethsemani in November of 1967 (see Merton's journal entry from November 7, 1967). His books include Homo Militans, The Psychology of War and Peace in Man, Delusion and Mass Delusion, and The Rape of the Mind. (Source: "Meerloo, Joost A. M." Current Biography. 1962. Wilson Biographies Plus. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 13 Dec. 2005. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)

Usage Guidelines and Restrictions

Related Information and Links

See also Cold War Letters #96 published in Witness to Freedom, pp. 60-61.

Other Finding Aids

If the person in correspondence with Merton has full text records in the Merton Center Digital Collections, there will be a numeric link to them below.
   

Series List

This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.

Container List

SeriesDateTypeTo/FromFirst LinesPubFull TextNotes
 1962/08/no? transcriptfrom MertonI have been meaning to write to you about the offprint you send a long time ago, and your letterYes [Cold War Letters #96 - transcript from bound set]
 1962/09/05 HLSto MertonYesterday, your book, Breakthrough to Peace arrived. It's a very appealing collection of essays   
 1962/11/04 (#01)TAL[c]from MertonA little time has gone by since I received your very welcome letter of September 5th.  [date is crossed out - some paragraphs of the letter are crossed out - could have been another letter considered for the Cold War Letters, but not included]
 1962/11/04 (#02)HLSto MertonIt was extremely kind of you to send me your latest book as edited by Thomas P. McDonnell.   
 1963/12/14 HLSto MertonIt was so kind of you to send me your "Emblems of a Season of Fury". It has become already a very   
 1963/12/29 TL[c]from MertonIt was good to hear from you again, and it is unfortunately all too true that in the rush of life   
 1964/05/31 HLSto MertonI waited already much too long with answering your last letter and now I received your touching poem   
 1965/01/31 HLSto MertonI am very grateful for sending me you "Seeds of Destruction". I was especially touched by your   
 1966/04/24 (#01)HLSto MertonThis is a very late answer to your short note. I love to see your book. I was once 3 weeks   
 1966/04/24 (#02)otherto MertonSpinoza: Coup d'œil sur ses conceptions psychologiques [-] par J. A. M. MEERLOO (New York)   
 1967/06/02 HLSto MertonThat was pleasant to receive such a long letter from you and I look forward to the books that are   
 1967/06/14 HLSto MertonIt is a long time since I have a token of life. It is especially the growing aggression   
 1967/06/18 TL[c]from MertonIt was a pleasure to get your letter and the articles. I am reading the lecture now and find   
 1967/07/07 HLSto MertonHow wonderful to send me all these books. This week I had after a long time the quiet to meditate   
 1967/08/04 TL[c]from MertonSince you indicated in your letter that you were going to Europe this summer, I did not rush   
 1967/09/04 HLSto MertonI reserved plane tickets to Louisville on Sat. Nov 4, 67, flight 247 leaving La Guardia at 8:05   
 1967/10/07 TL[c]from MertonMany thanks for your excellent little book <u>Total War and the Human Mind</u>.   
 1967/10/12 HLSto MertonSat. Nov 4. I arrive with American Airline, flight 247, in Louisville 9:55 A.M. Sunday Nov 5   
 1967/11/10 HLSto MertonIt is now a week later after the moving experiences in your midst. I cannot count the imponderabilia   
 1967/11/21 TL[c]from MertonThe books have arrived, also your good letter. Many thanks. Your book on the dance is very   
 1967/12/03 TL[c]from MertonThis week I have a group of cloistered nun superiors coming here for a retreat-cum-seminar,   
 1967/12/18 (#01)HLSto MertonYour letter lies already too long on my desk. Of course, you may use the manuscript on "silence"   
 1967/12/18 (#02)otherto MertonI would have like to have sent this to you now, but the books did not arrive, yet.  [description of Meerloo's book <i>Creativity and Eternization</i>, essays on the creative instinct, with a handwritten note by Meerloo]
 1967/12/18 (#03)otherto Merton<u>Bibliography</u> [-] Joost A.M. Meerloo, M.D. [-] <u>Books and Monographs</u>  [Meerloo's bibliography with checkmarks by certain books and two books handwritten by Merton which were books added to the list]
        

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