SEX AND GREIF

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Sharing the same community with your university, and having just had an extremely unsatisfying experience at one of its lectures. I feel some need and some responsibility to communicate my experience. A friend told me of a lecture on sex and communication to be presented at Harvard, March 12, at 7:30 by a Dr. Greif. Being extremely interested in sex, sexuality, and sexism, I ventured out through the evening rain to the Science Center. I was quite surprised when I was asked to pay at the entrance to the lecture hall, and very upset, when in response to his request for communication, I stood up and told Dr. Greif that I could (would) no longer deal with his offensive, condescending presentation; that I hadn't yet learned anything; and I no longer expected to, or indeed wanted to learn anything from him, and, that I saw my only hope for satisfaction...a simple one, that my money would be returned to me. He said that he assured its return and after getting my dollar back, I left the hall.

Now, sitting more peacefully at my desk, and thinking over what happened, I am amazed at the amount of condescension and offensiveness he managed to pack into such a small amount of time...I'm sure, quite innocently. I still can't get over the amount of pretense in most psychiatrists. If there is a psychiatrist reading this who doesn't giggle up his sleeve daily about his power to look down and manipulate, I'd like to speak to you.

Dr. Greif began by inviting communication. He wanted comments about a slide of a woman holding a baby and began trying to coax comments in a way that no grade school child I know would have tolerated. He also made insulting comments, subtle though they were, to those who obligingly responded to his seemingly meaningless request. At last he let us know how really stupid we were when he pointed out that we hadn't noticed that we couldn't see one of the baby's hands, and that, having actually been to Portugal, and seen the baby and grandmother in person, he knew that the baby had no hand, that it was a thalidimide baby. From this we were supposed to learn that often what is not seen is what is important. I won't describe anymore. I am just surprised and dismayed at the level of education being offered tonight in the lecture hall at the science center. There are so many serious things that could, and greatly need to be done in the area of sex and communication that we as a culture don't have time to play games with this issue, and I would like to see a serious university offering a more mature approach.

I also hope that Dr. Greif understands that I have no investment in making him feel bad: I simply don't like him wasting my time and do feel that he has a lot to unlearn. Sheila Hoffman