Mind and Matters

Brains, pains, and social strains.

Secret Life of the Brain

Dr. John Sarno has put forth the idea that most back pains, sciatica, and lots of other painful "illnesses" have been caused by our minds trying to prevent certain unpleasant things in our subconscious from surfacing. He has written three books about this, the latest being The Mindbody Prescription. The medical profession, though, as far as I understand it, says that it is impossible for the mind to create physical pain.

Would you ask Michael Gazzaniga '61 ["The Secret Life of the Brain," September] if he thinks the mind can be the cause of physical pain. And if he does think so, is there any scientific proof?

New York, New York

MICHAEL GAZZANIGA REPLIES: "A clear example of the mind/brain (albeit a disordered brain) producingpain is Dejerine-Roussy syndrome, -which was reported early in this century. The syndrome occurs in patients who have recoveredfrom a lesion of the thalamus, usually a hemorrhage. The patient is left with residual paralysis to one side of the brain and sensory loss on the opposite side of the body. According to my neurologist colleague, Dr. Robert Knight of the University of California at Berkeley, about three to six months post-lesion the patient begins to experience "dysesthesis" disagreeable sensation on the body side with the sensory loss. He goes on to say, "The pain can be simply dysesthesis or may grow to deep, gnawing pain. The syndrome is difficult to treat but does respond to conventional anti-seizure medications in about 50 percent of cases (although it is not due to seizures). It is referred to as the central pain syndrome."

While visiting cousins in Vermont, I saw the magazine's interesting series of notes on brain research.

I was much pleased to see credit given to Miguel Marin-Padilla, M.D., for his outstanding work. I fear he has not received the recognition his efforts and insight deserve. He is in the top rank of developmental neuropathologists of the twentieth century.

Developmental Neuropathology Untversity of Tennessee Memphis, Tennessee

Millennial Class

DAM refers to the class of '99 and their graduation in 1999 as the "last" class and Commencement of the millennium and of the twentieth century ["On the Hill," September],

But this simply isn't true. Since we use the Gregorian calendar system, we must acknowledge that, because there was no year 0, the twenty-first century and the third millennium begin on January 1,2001.

The last class of the millennium, the class of 2000, is still on campus.

Hanover, New Hampshire GEOFF.BRONNER@DARTMOUTH.EDU

You wouldn't want to receive $99 when cashing a $100 check. You have shortchanged the class of 2000 by removing them from distinction as the "last class of the millennium. "This assumes, of course, that the class of '00 has not abandoned the campus en masse over the "initiative" controversy.

Wallingford, Connecticut PETERBCT@SNET.NET

Poetic License

"Dartmouth Undying" [September] records that Robert Frost delivered his first fall seminar at Dartmoudi in 1946. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

I was 18 in 1943 and literally sat at the feet of Mr. Frost in the Treasure Room at his first fall seminar at Dartmouth. (This was not for grades but for enlightenment.)

By great good luck I can produce a copy of his book, Come In and Other Poems, which he gave to me. It is inscribed: "To Philip Booth/ from his friend/ Robert Frost/1944/ remembering last year/ in the library."

Castive, Maine

Beached Luau

Come on, guys! If the newspaper item I read today is really true, I am afraid the place has gone bonkers. If the Hawaiians feel that a luau party constitutes an insensitive affront, why don't they force a cancellation of all "non-religious" luaus on the islands? Perhaps it would affect some Polynesian wallets.

As a product of Harvard Medical School who once lived on Oahu and who has spent more than 35 years caring for the surgical diseases of children, I do not consider myself "insensitive" to the feelings of others and this complaint of cultural insensitivity just seems absurd.

Tucson, Arizona CROWEOO@IBM.NET

In my local paper there was a squib on the luau party cancellation at Dartmouth because of charges of "bigotry." I could hardly believe it. Is there something in the water and the air up there we don't know about?

Maybe bigotry, racism, and hate crimes exist on the part of those suffering from excessive sensitivity and making flimsy accusations of bigotry, racism, and hate crimes.

If the Dartmouth College administration cannot get a grip on political correctness and the pernicious effects that flow from it, then maybe this failure should be symbolized by a change from the Big Green Tearn to the Big Gray Blob.

Framingham, Massachusetts FCHASE@MA.ULTRANET.COM

housewarming

In your report on affinity and special interest living programs ["On the Hill," September], I noted with interest that the Native American House was established in 1982. This will no doubt come as a surprise to classmates of mine who thought they were among the first residents of the original Native American House, almost a decade earlier.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire MIKE@NHINTERNET.COM

Fueling Electric Cars

Perhaps the "swaggering" Professor Perrin should ask his students to tell him where the marvelous electricity he puts into the batteries of his car, apparently at College expense, comes from ["Syllabus," September]. A few would probably answer that it comes from Canada, but at least one, I hope, would reply that is comes from burning oil imported from places like Kuwait and Qatar, and it is coming in ever-increasing quantities.

That a professor is recommending the wholesale use of electric cars to students whose only response is how many days they could use the vehicle, points out the level to which reason and common sense have sunk, even at places such at Dartmouth. An electric car operates at perhaps a third of the overall efficiency of a gasoline car, and ultimately, if you trace the source of the electricity, electric cars are really good news for OPEC. Perhaps the professor should spend more time taking in those "cheap movies" and less time spreading misinformation to students.

Quechee, Vermont SOWA@TOGETHER.COM

The "M" Word

Noting the objection of a classmate ["Letters," September] to various Dartmouth presidents' moving the College "toward a politically correct, multicultural university," I can only observe that the recent tragic history of Yugoslavia is an example of a country moving in the opposite direction from multiculturalism—that is, toward ethnic cleansing.

"Multicultural" may be a buzzword of which we all get a little tired, but when I think of the alternatives to cultural diversity, I bless the Board of Trustees and Dartmouth's recent presidents for leading in the right direction.

Lakeville, Connecticut NICOLINO@LI.COM

Undergraduate Life

Students need personal support and supervision. Dartmouth should promote academics as the primary purpose of the College; contribute to the growth and development of productive, successful, moral, and patriotic citizens; and provide healthy recreation and physical education. The College should separate the sexes by building no sharing of floors, showers, or toilets; furnish hands-on support, supervision, and security for students in all locations; actively supervise the Greeks; add supervisory and social rooms to every dormitory and Greek facility; and add required courses in marriage, home, family, and religion for all students.

Mirror Lake, New Hampshire

The Trustees must understand that while it may be "different at Dartmouth," that is because it is better at Dartmouth. Toward this end, the Trustees may wish to consider whether the present College administration understands Dartmouth well enough to be permitted to continue the College on the Hill.

Boston, Massachusetts JDAUKAS@GPH.COM

People who did not attend Dartmouth simply "don't get it." I first came to this view as a member of the Undergraduate Council in 1981 when a professor who did not attend Dartmouth gave a presentation arguing that the College should be balkanized into separate residential sub-colleges with separate dining halls "that's the way they do it at Yale, Harvard, and Princeton," he argued—implying that Dartmouth must be doing something wrong. When several students argued that such divisiveness would damage and perhaps destroy Dartmouth's singular greatest asset, its extraordinary sense of community and school spirit, the professor sneeringly brushed aside such concerns. That professor in 1981 just didn't get it, and in 1999 President Wright doesn't get it.

Every student of history knows that culture cannot be imposed from above if the people are against it. As a practical matter, I think the administration would do well to avoid intransigence.

New York, New York DDEJURE@AOL.COM

Here we go again. We're in the news as a result of what smacks of a unilateral effort to extinguish fraternities at Dartmouth College as we may have known them.

Sure, I joined one, DU, Delta Upsilon, sometime in 1963 probably because my best friend Kip had done so. I have no regrets of my participation in the sixties, but for Y2K I'd say, if you want to go Greek, take a course in ancient Greek. I think I got more out of majoring in classics than learning secret handshakes or planning my next toga party.

Appleton, Minnesota

Requiring fraternities and sororities to become coeducational dormitories will not eliminate problems related to the excessive use of alcohol. Efforts should rather continue toward encouraging more responsible and elevating behavior by the so-called Greek societies.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Some of my fondest memories and friends were through fraternity associations. The theme of our house was a "band of brothers," and that was a relationship that was nurtured and grew.

Change is a very difficult experience, and I have misgivings with the concept that fraternities as they currently exist are a thing of the past. Letters from current students, especially sorority members, seem to imply that change isn't always the best solution.

MADISON, WISCONSIN

Participation in a fraternity was an integral part of my Dartmouth experience. Fraternities are wonderful organizations. Aside from the public service projects they perform, they promote loyalty, teach individual members to work together, and truly foster leadership skills. Which of these attributes will not help an individual make a more positive impact on society?

Discarding a system that has served the College and its students for more than 150 years because a group of Trustees and the faculty for the past 20 years have conceptualized a better Dartmouth is folly. If the administration creates alternatives on campus that it thinks will be more desirable, and if the students choose to participate, and the fraternities grow weaker, I can accept that. However, the idea of mandating these changes is offensive.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA MJACOBSON@GARETINA.COM

In 1950, when I was a sophomore, nothing seemed as important to me than to be part of the "elite," fraternity-bound. I had been rejected soundly by my older brother's fraternity and felt quite left out. Butlo and behold, with some fellow classmates I knew, we decided as a group that we would go together. And that we did! Sigma Chi was our destination. For the next three years our group lived, partied, and held together like a bunch of U.S. Marines. It was great!

Then, when I returned from my first reunion, I went to the fraternity where I assumed I would find fellow classmates. Well, there were NONE there. Where were they? At the class tent, where they were supposed to be. My first lesson this is a Dartmouth class reunion. My classmates gather, plan, reunite, share, converse, work, and play together, not as a fraternity, but as Men of Dartmouth. That's where it is, always was, and ever shall be.

MIDDLEBURY, VERMONT

An open letter to the Trustees: First you gave us John Kemeny to trample upon our traditions by abolishing the Indian symbol for a College founded to educate Indians. Next came David McLaughlin '54, who abandoned school authority by ordering the shanties' removal—and then abjectly backed down. Then it was James Freedman, who sought to eliminate freedom of speech by suppressing The Review.

Finally, James Wright plans to abrogate freedom of association by banning single-sex affiliations that complement mixedsex dormitories, which are already supposed to "foster respectful relations between men and women."

Now that you have turned Dartmouth University into "Harvard-with-trees" what do you plan to "reform" next?

BETHESDA, MARYLAND

Standing Together

I was delighted with and impressed by President Wright's "Standing Together" ["Presidential Range," March]. His empathy and wisdom give me great confidence in his ability to lead our College in the efforts to improve residential life.

DEEFIELD, ILLINOIS WILLIAMSINK@EMAIL.MSN.COM

President Dickey

How could you possibly see fit to publish that account of President John Sloan Dickey's illness ["Voces," September]? That Michael Lowenthal '90 can derive some kind of satisfaction by recording it is pitiful. But for you to then pass it on to thousands of Dickey admirers is, in my judgment, truly reprehensible. Does human dignity and the protection of human dignity mean nothing to you?

Shame on you.

PACIFIC GROVE, CALIFORNIA

Counterculture

The April issue features a special report about the New Social Order "ending the Greek system as we know it," closely followed by the poignant, heart-warming story by Michael Lowenthal '90 ["People of the Book"]. Mr. Lowenthal is the recent author of The Same Embrace, a novel about a young gay Jewish man in search of belonging. While engaged in research for this novel, Mr. Lowenthal stumbles across a book written by his great-grandfather. Mr. Lowenthal writes, "He was an Orthodox rabbi, and I am a non-observant. I don't speak German or Hebrew. I am gay." One senses that Mr. Lowenthal's grandfather and father loved him and, along with his great-grandfather, would have been proud of his intellectual accomplishments yet saddened that the sterility of his great-grandson's relationships to both man and God meant the end of the line for their forefathers. The irony of the symbolism combined in the juxtaposition of these two stories is striking.

Since the sixties there has been an allout assault on the culture and values of Dartmouth. Under the leadership of President Freedman and now President Wright, the counterculture is poised for yet another victory. They will still call it Dartmouth, and we can be proud of it and love it, but will it still be Dartmouth?

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

Looking for Soul

Athough I enjoyed and was edified by Robert Sullivan '75's ["What Does Dartmouth Cry For?" March] appraisal of religion at Dartmouth I think something important was left out of the "nagging question of values."

Like Mr. Sullivan, I was permanently (I hope) affected by literature professor Peter Bien when I was at Dartmouth. But I was also memorably impressed by philosophy professor Bernard Gert, and have tried to prolong the effect by reading his Morality: A New Justification of the Moral Rules (Oxford University Press, 1988).

I'm surprised that Mr. Sullivan, in discussing ethics at Dartmouth, does not much attend to Dartmouth moral philosophers, who surely are ethics "professionals" if anyone is. Philosophical ethics courses offer rigorous ways of analyzing ethical questions, and at the same time if they are anything like Gert's approach—provide frameworks for making real-world decisions. This is not merely a "searingly intellectual pursuit," but one that brings in heart and soul as fully as a Bien lecture on Joyce's Ulysses. Sure, such courses probably don't "teach values," if this means provid ing students with a sense of mission or purpose in life. But maybe the nuanced moral introspection they can engender is more valuable in the long run.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK GEOSMITH@MSN.COM

"What Does Dartmouth Cry For?" confirmed my suspicion that many liberal arts institutions have too readily accepted the Enlightenment assumption that religious faith precludes the use of reason. Studying graduate-level theology at a Catholic university has shown me that faith exploration and critical inquiry can complement one another in the quest for human ennoblement, the veryideal to which liberal education aspires.

Why not add a theology department to Dartmouth? In contrast to the historical and phenomenological methods of religious studies, theological method allows for critical reflection upon personal experiences of faith, as an individual and in community. Moreover, such reflection may be pursued in an ecumenical spirit, in dialogue with religious traditions other than one's own.

I wish that I had had the opportunity as an undergraduate to pursue my own religious questions with the intellectual and academic rigor that only a university can provide. I encourage the Trustees and administration to consider innovative approaches toward allowing for the deepening of religious reflection at Dartmouth.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS BESHEAR@BC.EDU

Just what is Mr. Sullivan trying to tell us? His essay seems like a long diatribe leading nowhere. Mr. Sullivan is not for anything, but rather just laying out some history so that the reader can feel informed but not realize how far we have departed from our roots. It is an example of the humanistic approach: carry out a plan gradually and the public will never know the difference.

We need high moral leaders at Dartmouth and in the United States, not just consensus thinking that will just continue to take us from our current level of culture to a lower level.

NEW HARBOR, MAINE

A measure of an institution's healthy maturity is the degree of self-criticism it can sustain. Mr. Sullivan's article indicates that the College, as reflected in the magazine, is newly coming of age in this respect.

ALLSTON, MASSACHUSETTS JGBRENNER@ROCKETMAIL.COM

If the College is not searching for a soul, she ought to be.

Dartmouth has a fine and noble origin: to spread the word and deed of Christ. Is there shame in that? The life and teaching of Jesus are among the greatest inspirations and sources of strength to humankind in all of history.

In our search for something greater, bigger, more contemporary, more in step with this fantastic modern age of science and technology, why did we abandon our founding ideals?

May the likes of professors Bien and Green stimulate yet deeper inquiry to the essential values of life itself. There are answers, if we care to look.

VILNIUS, LITHUANIA GUNNARDJ@CARP.VNO.OSF.LT

The Tucker Foundation in its outreach activities in the sixties and seventies helped keep Dr. Saul Blatman as chairman of the department of maternal and child health at Dartmouth Medical School. Arriving in Hanover in 1972, Dr. Blatman quickly learned about the unmet health needs of the region's children, but was discouraged by the minimal interest in working to solve these problems. He approached the College chaplain, the Rev. Paul Rahmeier, to query whether Dartmouth had a soul. The Rev. Rahmeier invited Dr. Blatman to be a medical consultant to a Tucker Foundation outreach project injersey City, New Jersey, which screened the health of Jersey's school children. Dr. Blatman's satisfaction from participating in this project helped to sustain his enthusiasm for the successful outreach activities sponsored by his own department in the years before his retirement in 1978.

I thank the Tucker Foundation for adding spiritual relevance to the excellent Dartmouth curriculum.

BROOKFIELD, CONNECTICUT

It may be that Dartmouth's "soul" has to do with loyalty and high jinks and the D.O.C. and "crunch of feet on snow," but I would recommend Thoreau's Walden to the College administrators and Trustees, were they really focused on where to go from here.

Read the paragraphs following the line: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately." Thoreau calls for "Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity!"Fielaments "ruined" lives for the want of "a worthy aim," and points us toward the value of "tinkering upon our lives to improve."

Dartmouth, if it is really to do good (and it certainly is in the position to do so), needs to continue to aid us in our "tinkering."

NORWALK, CONNECTICUT