Wormwood has informed Screwtape that his patient could be called up for military service. This is good news, especially as there is an element of uncertainty. This will fill the patient with hope and fear as he imagines what could happen to him. The suspense and anxiety will create major barricades between the patient and the Enemy.

The patient will believe that God wishes him to patiently accept whatever suffering is dealt out to him. He has been taught to say, "Thy will be done" and to expect the resources—the daily bread—necessary to meet his needs will be provided. Screwtape points out that the patient will mistake the array of things he fears for the real tribulation he must bear, which is his present anxious state. It is impossible for a human to patiently resign himself "a dozen different and hypothetical fates," and God cannot help him do so. Therefore, keep him helplessly focused on all these fears.

Screwtape explains that there is a spiritual law at work here. When the patient's fixed attention is turned outward to the detriment of his soul, the devil must encourage that. As an example, Screwtape cites a patient's reaction to an insult or sight of a woman's body. If the patient can look inward to evaluate his feelings—anger or lust—he can deal with them. Therefore, it is best (from the devil's point of view) to keep his attention fixed helplessly outward on the insult or woman's body. On the other hand, if the patient's attention is focused outward to the benefit of his soul, the devil must work to reverse that. For example, if the patient is focusing on the Enemy or his own neighbors instead of himself, the devil must work to turn the patient's thoughts inward.

Screwtape warns Wormwood not to depend on the hatred stemming from war to help him corrupt his patient. This hatred is aimed at an imagined enemy drawn from descriptions in newspapers; not real people. When faced with a living person, the English cannot be depended on to act upon this "fanciful hatred." Too often, the opposite occurs.

The devil advises his nephew that his patient has both benevolence and malice in his soul. Wormwood must guide his patient to direct malice toward people around him and benevolence to a remote, largely imagined circle of people. This will render malice "wholly real" and benevolence a fantasy.

To clarify how this works, Screwtape describes the inner life of the patient as concentric circles. From the inside out, these circles are the patient's will, his intellect, and his fantasy. Each contains traces of the Enemy in the form of virtues. These virtues must be eradicated. Once they reach the patient's true Will—"what the Enemy calls the Heart"—they can be acted on. That is fatal to the devil.