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March-April 2008
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< previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 REPRESSED MEMORY REVISITEDStarting with my training at Harvard and continuing through graduate school and into my professional life, I have always been taught the value of rigorous empirical research. Unfortunately, Harrison Pope’s research appears to be sadly lacking in any kind of solid empirical grounding (see “Repressed Memory,” January-February, page 7). It moves from a highly questionable hypothesis through even more questionable research methodology, and reaches far-ranging conclusions that ignore the vast body of research in traumatic memory carried out during the past two decades. Based on the fact that respondents failed to meet the criteria of the experimenters (which apparently were never openly stated), the authors conclude that traumatic memory is basically a construction of society in the past two centuries. Not only is their methodology highly irregular, their conclusions ignore a huge body of empirical research. To say that something did not exist until recently because no one wrote about it before that is a conclusion that cannot be scientifically justified. David L. Shapiro ’65 At Ophelia’s funeral, Hamlet has apparently forgotten he killed her father. Dianne Hunter UNDERGRADUATE APPRECIATIONThanks so much to Liz Goodwin for generously sharing her inner journey from self-doubt to greater trust in her own personhood (The Undergraduate, “Applying Yourself,” January-February, page 69). I, too, wrestle with this same bad habit: restlessly seeking approval through outer achievement and validation from others. Perhaps this is universal, though I suspect that it might weigh frequently on many who wind up at Harvard. I am so glad that Goodwin developed the courage to trust both her relationships with friends, and her own gut, heart, and mind, as places she can talk about and mull over what feels right for her, regardless of what others are doing or saying. May we all be so courageous, and help one another to keep growing back to this vital human truth. Benjamin Hall ’90, M.Div. ’99 Thank you for printing Liz Goodwin’s wonderful essay. Having been a dean at Stanford, Dartmouth, and Swarthmore for nearly 25 years, I’ve had the opportunity to read many student essays about college life. I consider “Applying Yourself” to be one of the most insightful statements yet about the personal academic journey at such highly selective schools. I believe that Goodwin’s essay should be circulated to high-school and college-age students across the country, and I plan to do my part by sharing the essay (with her gracious permission) with students here at Swarthmore. Jim Larimore RACE AND GENETICSYour story on “Lucky Jim” Watson (“Chairman of the Bored,” a book review, January-February, page 24) could at best be considered ill-timed. Apparently Watson admires the University of Chicago as a place that produced graduates “capable of critical thought and morally compelled to use those critical capacities—damn the consequences,” and where he “learned the need to be forthright and call crap crap.” Well, speaking of crap, what about Watson’s views on race and genetics? Shouldn’t you have been forthright about that? Jeffrey F. Hamburger Editor’s note: Steven Shapin’s review was written before James D. Watson’s widely publicized, and criticized, comments on race, made during his book tour. Shapin and the magazine’s staff discussed making note of the controversy, but decided that his original text was sufficient as a critical review of the memoir—and of its author. CARBONIFEROUS INSECTSIn his fascinating article on Robert Wood’s robotic fly (“Tinker, Tailor, Robot, Fly,” January-February, page 8), Dan Morrell asks, “Why did all the four-winged arthropod flyers of the Late Carboniferous Period evolve to have two wings?” Well, they didn’t. Four-winged insects, descendants of Late Carboniferous ancestors, still dominate the insect world; think of beetles and butterflies. Only a single major order of insects, the flies Wood’s robots emulate, have reduced their wings to two. Flies appear many millions of years after the Late Carboniferous; there is not a single Carboniferous or Permian flying-insect fossil with only two wings. I suspect Morrell is confused about wing numbers and the numbers of wing pairs. So really Morrell’s question should be: “Why did all the six-winged arthropod fliers of the Late Carboniferous Period evolve to have two pairs of wings?” And just as interestingly, why did one large group later evolve to have a single pair? William Shear, Ph.D. ’71 TISSUE AT ISSUE?You quote Dean Harry R. Lewis as saying the Harvard College Toilet Paper Commission of 1998 “met weekly all fall to consider this important issue” (Yesterday’s News, January-February, page 58). I suspect what he really said was, “met…to consider this important tissue.” Peggy Troupin, Ph.D. ’74 ERRATAThe woman on the cover of the Pink Martini CD Hey Eugene! (January-February, page 19), is not lead singer China Forbes ’92, but Mildred Eichler, photographed in Queens in 1962. Thanks to fans Jeff Tryens, M.P.A. ’95, of Seattle and Wilbert C. Anderson, LL.B. ’54, of Portland, Oregon, for the correction. Lawrence G. Duggan, Ph.D. ’71, professor of history at the University of Delaware, and another correspondent point out that the Revolutionary War and Vietnam War lasted longer than the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, correcting a misstatement about the nation’s “longest war” (January-February, page 45). It should have said that the current wars were now longer than the Civil War and World War II. Finally, Jim Harrison, not Stu Rosner, took the photograph of Bruce Western on page 55 of that issue. SPEAK UP, PLEASEHarvard Magazine welcomes letters on its contents. Please write to “Letters,” Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138, send comments by e-mail to yourturn@harvard.edu, use our website, www.harvardmagazine.com, or fax us at 617-495-0324. Letters may be edited to fit the available space.  
 
 
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