An old stereotype about the U of C is that it’s sort of a miserable place because everyone is studying so hard. In another thread that’s being given as the reason the students there allegedly have more mental illness than elsewhere. That suggestion has got me thinking.
Certainly there is anecdotal evidence that some students do suffer under the strain of work at a seriously demanding place like Chicago. Others find a way to do what they need to do without too much strain. But there’s another category of student that isn’t much talked about - the kind for whom study is a steadying and comforting activity in its own right and a defence against a chaotic world. Study can take you out of yourself and your predicaments. Even the time it consumes can be steadying, filling the hours the way any steady job does. It’s the old reliable at a time of life when much is up for grabs and unsettling. Many a student has turned with relief and consolation to his or her books after a romantic debacle or a family crisis or simply an attack of nerves about what the future holds. At a place like Chicago, where the life of studiousness is a challenge and an adventure in its own right, this must be an especially powerful resource in the war against one’s demons. I submit that it is very much underrated in therapeutically-directed discussions of unhappiness and mental illness. That’s a shame. Many a floundering soul has been saved by the discipline and satisfaction that comes of hard study. It’s only one piece of the puzzle but, for many of us, an important one.
Similar claims can (and have) been made for pizza, ice cream, heroin, marijuana, TM, any number of TV series and movies that stream on Netflix or Amazon Prime, and many video games. Not to mention sex, agricultural labor, or religious orders. And those perennial classics enlisting in the Marines, the Foreign Legion, or (now) Islamic State.
@JHS: Obviously “hard study” has consequences to the studious individual and to society the other “fixes” you mention do not. A habit of serious, deep study pays enduring dividends that ice cream, pizza (even Chicago-style pizza), TM, etc. do not. While knowledge is its own reward, personal career prospects are enhanced and there are positive externalities to society from having more knowledgeable citizens. UChicago helps those with an affinity to serious study to capitalize on that gift. As Marlowe1 puts it, not all addictions are equal.
I’ll concede that some addictions have more social utility than others. I mainly wanted to tease @marlowe1 for clutching at straws to argue that, contrary to beliefs of other posters that they assert are conventional, the University of Chicago has an atmosphere that uniquely promotes mental health. As if!
I do not say that the rigor of hard study can’t be deleterious to mental health. I assert only that it often has the opposite effect, something seldom remarked on in these discussions. I believe it was Bertrand Russell who said that he turned to mathematics to avoid going insane. (That strategy admittedly did not work quite so well for Kurt Godel.) My point is that life presents us with maddening frustrations profounder than the mere stress of study. Those frustrations are generally beyond our control and are often the more lacerating because they make us doubt such things as our essential goodness, worthiness and lovability. The study of a subject matter is something we can control and doesn’t require us to be moral exemplars. Its effect is to take us out of our poor deficient paltry selves. As T.S. Eliot said, in a somewhat different context, “the object should be to shed the merely personal; however only those with personality know what it means to want to escape it.”
“But there’s another category of student that isn’t much talked about - the kind for whom study is a steadying and comforting activity in its own right and a defence against a chaotic world.”
This probably represents a good number of UChicago students. And of course most don’t break under the demanding workload, although most everyone is likely to be stressed at some point. No pain, no gain.
Those who accuse UChicago of fostering a mentally unhealthy undergraduate experience are linking studiousness to a lack of mental soundness. The logical implication, then, must be that all who are attracted to the place are gluttons for punishment, or have masochistic tendencies or self-esteem issues, or perhaps lack the social skills necessary to do pretty much anything else. But this is hardly a new stereotype; the College has suffered - and at times even fostered - such an identity for decades now. The only nuance at the present time might be that the accusers would have to believe the surging popularity of the place can only be due to skyrocketing mental problems among young people. While increased awareness of mental illness among our teens has been a necessary and ongoing campaign for several years now, I have yet to see a prospective symptom list that includes something like “applies to the University of Chicago”! So, as most of us probably know, the accusation results from an anti-intellectual bias more than anything else - “mental illness” is just the Straw Man du Jour.
IMHO, “studiousness” is not a dependency or addiction - or sign of mental imbalance, for that matter - as much as a characteristic associated with those who desire to improve in their scholarship and very rationally take the steps to achieve it. Serious scholarship is like serious Anything Else: it takes regular, dedicated practice to progress and improve. Whether “studiousness” is an inherent or derived trait is really secondary. One can be studious by nature and make an awful scholar; another can be the sort who did not a stitch of real academic work before arriving on campus and suddenly hunkering down to learn the material.
One very important addition/caveat: those who spend hours over end in their dorm rooms or at the Reg are probably deficient in Vitamin D and so should spend either 20 min. per day in the sun, do light therapy, or take supplements. They may well find that all three are necessary, depending on their blood levels (which can be easily checked). Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to mood disorders and even depression; the literature concerning college students specifically has been increasing. It’s definitely something that can contribute to depression in an academically intense program - or any college program, for that matter.
That is well-said, @JBStillFlying , and captures most of what I had in mind. But, while I don’t want to use the word addiction except in a whimsical way, I admit that I am thinking of the studious Chicago-style ethos in somewhat therapeutic terms. For most kids this may not apply at all or only briefly or in a very attenuated degree - these are the ones who simply want to learn things, enjoy learning things and are planning more or less rationally for a future in which to put the things they learn into use. Studiousness Is fulfilling for such kids, but it didn’t save them from their worser selves. They were probably never at danger of mental illness in the first place. It wasn’t for them a bulwark against that condition so much as a natural effect of the opposite condition of natural healthiness of mind.
I applaud and agree with this description of the typical effect of study, but I am also advancing here a more extreme notion - that a kid with real problems can be “saved” by what the University of Chicago has to offer. For the kind of kid I have in mind the more frolicsome aspects of collegiate life might be a torment, bringing him face to face with his own inadequacies, deepening his gloom and exacerbating or bringing to crisis the issues lurking in his life. There can be terrors on the beach, the tennis court and the dance floor for such a kid. It is good for him to confront those terrors. But what will really heal him is to think and act seriously in the company of others of serious disposition. Yes, even at a school like Chicago that won’t happen continuously or perhaps even easily. This may be a precariously balanced and very self-critical kid, one who could have problems anywhere, whether at Chicago or at a state school in the sun belt. I suggest only that the odds are better at Chicago. Whereas, another sort of kid (and I knew one who came up with me from Texas) will loathe everything about the studious culture of the place, will respond by developing mental problems and will transfer out. It’s a complex matter, with many variants. I simply want to state the case for serious study as a healer of certain kinds of broken souls.
OK @marlowe1 how about this: wisdom is good, and the attainment of wisdom is a worthy but difficult undertaking. Along the way there is the potential to develop and practice daily some crucial human virtues such as self-discipline, patience, understanding, orderliness, fortitude, self-knowledge, etc. - all traits that help keep us sane. By the way, these can also be achieved in other venues; for those inclined to the cerebral, an intense program of academic study fits the bill. While they are attracted to the prospect of intense studiousness, they aren’t necessarily reflecting on the side benefits (avoiding mental illness, for instance), nor have they read the Summa. They just know that they enjoy studying and pursuing academic subjects. Along the way, they may well encounter several demons (self-doubt, impatience, anger, sloth, anxiety) and a few will succumb to them. Some may even loathe it from the start because they had a different expectation of how the attainment of wisdom should go down. I’ve seen a similar scenario play out with one or two of my kids who subscribe to a (to them) more “correct” view of how they should be instructed or coached (NB: for them, this tends to be something deeper than mere personality clashes. Sigh.). People are a mystery.
I sent a bottle of Vitamin D with DD. She says she takes them on cloudy days. She has yet to use the down coat we bought for her and sent with her, which tells me she is spending very little time outside during the winter, so I’m glad I sent the Vitamin D. This has nothing to do with her feeling overwhelmed by the work, by the way. She just loves her House, can get most of what she needs within the BJ / Cathey / close by area, and doesn’t like bulky clothing.