I would like to respond to Sophie's letter.

I would like to respond to Sophie's letter re therapists rooms. Being a therapist myself, I have been privy to many other therapist's rooms.

It seems to me that the room somehow reflects the therapist's attitude to and understanding of the therapeutic process. The more aloof, analytic types, ususually go in for a minimalist approach, signifying their adherence to the outmoded idea that their own internal workings are to be kept strictly out of sight and that it must be all about the patient. By contrast, Freud's rooms were anything but bland and sterile. I've actually seen both the Vienna and the London one. On the contrary, they clearly reflected his personal interests and passions and were very colourful indeed, albeit in a somewhat blowsy Victorian way. On the other extreme, we have the warm, fuzzy, hypercosmic, crowd. Their rooms are still littered with 60's style bean bags, incense burners, Eastern bric a brac and gaudy Carnaby Street cushions. This is likely to reflect a clinging to retro attitudes and atmosphere.

Whatever the case, it has little if anything to offer that's new. Still, horses for courses I suppose. Those of us who work for public or private institutions may not have much of a say about the room allocated to us but to some extent, we can be responsible for the decor and atmosphere. Airless, windowless, broom closets not withstanding. Fortunately, most of us dwell somewhere in the middle of these extremes. Above all, it must be a room designed around a specific purpose. It was never intended to be a nouveau fashion statement, vying for the front page of Vogue.