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June 29, 1970

Dear Mrs. Blake:
I am worried about Doris myself these days. I see her at least once a week so I am always in touch with her. Indeed her ideas lately seem to be a little unrealistic. This has been true for quite a while. I think she should never have quit seeing that psychiatrist. The necessity of just talking things over with someone once a week seemed to help her keep her feet on the ground. All these business schemes are a revival of the kind of thin that broke up our marriage as much as anything she did. I thought they were all outlandish and she insisted on doing them.
However, the co-op apartment is a good idea, which I have been urging her to do. I don't like her present place- it's nice enough inside but it's in a old building in a rather decayed neighborhood. (Mostly old Irish and Italians: I don't think there is any great crime problem but it's awfully dingy.) All the pleasant new buildings are cooperatives- you have to buy your apartment, like buying a house. Most people can't afford this initial investment but Doris can. I think that having a bright, pleasant, safe place to live in would do her a lot of good and she can afford it. I would think she has enough money to do this without borrowing, but if she want to do it that way, and you are willing, it is as good a reason for borrowing as I can think of.
About this cooperative- I think one of the main reasons for their popularity is that the high investment required is a way of restricting the tenants to middle-class whites without running about of the law. I wouldn't present it to her that way, and from a long-term point of view I don't altogether approve, but we are both concerned about Doris' survival and it is one way of being pretty sure that the man down the hall is not an unemployed heroin addict.
Doris' overwork is not a cause of her condition so much as a symptom of it. I really do believe that the real cause of all this peculiar behavior is the habit of taking all kinds of pills to control her mood. Well, the root cause is probably deeper than that. Why does she need the pills? But she was in