Going to College Can Make You Crazy

Or, at least it can if you are a woman, and you make the mistake of going to one of those awful, icky secular institutions...or so Lifesite would have you believe.

The article I've just linked to is an amazing piece, both for it's obvious slant, but also what it's underlying assumptions are.

It hinges on whatever's written in this book - whose author has chosen to remain anonymous. That's the first thing that makes me deeply suspicious. Outside of certain, very rare, circumstances (such as those surrounding Watergate), I get very suspicious of someone writing anonymously. First of all, it means that not one of their allegations can be reasonably challenged, second, it calls into question their own professional sincerity. It also renders the book utterly unusable for further study.

The thesis is basically that "secular psychology" is being very damaging to young women:

Young women in college in the US and Canada suffer from an epidemic of depression, eating disorders and even self-mutilation and suicidal thoughts and behavior. Campus health professionals, steeped in the politically correct doctrines of sexual “freedom” and feminist theory, fail even to acknowledge the existence of the real cause.

Dr. Anonymous, who chose to keep her identity secret out of fear of professional reprisal, identifies the damage done to women by the feminist ideology that proposes women are psychologically identical to men and encourages sexual promiscuity – as long as it is made “safe” with a condom.

Oh lovely, here we go again. The message to women here is "sex is bad", "only have sex when you're married", and "you'll be punished if you do have sex before you marry". Of course, there's no mention of young, college aged men and their role, is there? No, instead, they focus on the women and try to, for all intents and purposes, blame them for being sexual beings. Worse, the argument seems to focus on the notion that college aged women are seeking counselling purely because they have sex lives.

Just to round things out, the author heaps an addition scoop of blame on those evil feminists. The talking point about feminism encouraging promiscuity is almost, but not quite laughable. It would appear that the article (and the book's) authors have never read any feminist literature before, and are arguing by supposition.

She told Dr. Warren Throckmorton in an interview that she “feels very much at risk.”

Dr. who? Oh, this guy - whose work pops up quite regularly quoted by the likes of NARTH, and other anti-gay groups. When his website's tagline reads "Celebrating Truth, Faith and Life", you might suspect that he has a vested interest perhaps?

Dr. Anonymous writes that the psychological field is still dominated by an irrational prejudice against religious faith that she calls “Theophobia,” that thwarts efforts to relieve women’s suffering.

Ah, now the truth comes out. It's all about shaming women using centuries old scriptural prohibitions. Of course, this comes from the same hypocrites who would call a bride who delivered a baby in less than the usual 9 months "enthusiastic" (nudge, nudge ... wink, wink), rather than pregnant at the time she got married.

Whether or not we want to like it, by the time most people are in college, they are young adults. Thinking that shaming them about sexuality is productive is embarrassingly neanderthal, and pathetically naive. I'd much rather that young men and women know their own bodies and sexuality honestly. (and yes, that does mean making birth control available to them, as well as non-judgmental counselling)

I suspect that "Dr. Anonymous" has more interest in "discrediting" organizations like the APA because they don't follow her particular brand of religious beliefs, and by remaining anonymous is able to continue to foster the spectre of "repercussions".