Sissela Bok: In No One's Shadow

She writes books that win prizes, publishes articles in scholarly magazines, lectures on medical ethics, and leads seminars. In between she speaks five languages, earns honorary Phi Beta Kappa degrees, and studies philosophy. And she's sat on the advisory boards of the Amnesty International Medical Committee, the "Encyclopedia of Bioethics," and the Committee on Clinical Investigation of Children's Hospital in Boston.

Yet when this Harvard Ph. D met with the press in 1971--two days after her husband was formally selected by the Corporation and the Board of Overseers as President of the University--whe was not asked about her academic career. Instead, the "women of the press" who had been invited to 33 Elmwood Ave. wanted to know what Sissela Bok thought about the mini-skirt.

Little wonder, then that when a Crimson reporter requested an interview four years later, it took three weeks before she could be persuaded to give in. In the earlier mini-skirt conference the press had also been interested in Mrs. Bok's feelings about house plants and hobbies, and so in 1975 she agreed to meet with a reporter only on the condition that there would be no discussion of "the family" or other personal matters. Questions would be directed to her work, and to make sure nothing slipped out. Deane Lord, director of the Harvard News Office, would be present throughout. Nevertheless, the piece ended up as a psychological portrait of the first lady entitled. "Sissela Bok: What does she do Till Derek comes home?"

She has always been surrounded by the academic and famous. Her father is Gunnar Myrdal, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, and her mother is a diplomat who has sat in Sweden's parliament and held that country's ambassadorship to India. Her own field is moral philosophy--an area she exlored in her aaard-winning 1978 book "Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life.

"I'm interested in language, in shades of meaning--int he difference between lying and fiction," she told the Boston Globe last year. "Also, 'I'm interested in questions of privacy and discretion, and in how one gets along with other human beings, honestly, trying not to injure them."

This interest in "privacy and discretion" seems to have affected other areas of her life. Guests at Harvard functions have described her as "extremely engaging" but also "more formal than is usual," and she is likely to discuss questions of medical ethics at these parties than her personal life. "I am very interested in Harvard and very fond of it as an institution," she told reporters in 1971. adding. "I think I'll let my husband make the policy--if I had been offered the job. I might have some ideas."

Nine years later she expressed similar views to the Globe, saying of her relationship with her husband, "I regard it as inappropriate for either of us to try to manipulate the other's work. We discuss our work: I read his drafts. he reads mine. But we don't try to have a stronger effect than to manifest a great interest. I feel it is inappropriate for a wife of husband to look over the other's shoulder and try to influence decisions."

So, despite her reluctance to discuss personal matters, when she does give interviews the conversations often turns to "the children"--Hilary. Victoria. and Thomas--and the difficulty of being both a scholar and a mother. "I'm always hoping I'll learn to shift gears as my mother did." she said last year. "She could live every aspect of her life with great intensity--being with her children, writing--whatever she was doing would completely absorb her."

But Bok does seem to reflect her mother's absorbtion. "I'm really just frantic trying to prepare papers for speeches I have to give," she told The Crimson in response to its interview request. She received world-wide acclaim for her book, and she spends her days lecturing and writing. And in 1978 Deane Lord called her "more of an impressive scholar than he is"