Last week, Peter Soeller ‘14 gifted The Dickinsonian with an article titled, “The Space between Brilliance and Madness.” This article was, in essence, about, well, I’m not exactly sure. It seemed a montage of rantings on Benjamin Rush, psychiatry, the Wellness Center, sustainability, corporations, and the “War on Creativity.” Anyway, the article touched on many points that I would like to address.

First of all, the article talked about Dickinson College’s founder Benjamin Rush. Soeller went on to say that Rush was a racist and “just like most of the other Founders: rich, ignorant, and out of touch with the experiences of everyday people.” Of course he was! I have no idea why Soeller seems shocked by the fact that a rich, white man living in the 18th century was a racist and an elitist. No, it does not excuse Benjamin Rush, but in a world where Thomas Jefferson would father children by his slaves, the idea of Rush being pro-slavery is hardly breaking news.

Soeller also seems to imply that Dickinson College worships Benjamin Rush. We have one statue of Rush and a brand of tea named after him. This hardly constitutes as worship. All colleges and universities have statues of their founders. This is hardly something that is unique to Dickinson. When the college starts sacrificing small animals to Rush’s statue, then I would be interested in hearing about it.

After this, Soeller moves on to what I assume is the main point of the article: the Dickinson administration controlling the Wellness Center so that they provide mediocre counseling services to students. Admittedly, I have minimal experience with the Dickinson Wellness Center, other than being treated for sinus infections. I do have experience with the outside world, which teaches me that Soeller’s complaints about the Dickinson Wellness Center are not unique to this campus. “To make up for their lack of resources, the Wellness Center focuses on cost effective techniques such as positive psychology, self-care, and medicating.” This is not the Wellness Center; this is American psychology. America is full of psychologists who tell patients that positive thinking can overcome their depression and being in an abusive relationship is a choice. And those are the better ones.

Soeller writes, “They [the students] are convinced that they need to see a counselor who ends up simply prescribing a mind-numbing medication without really treating the source of the problem.” According to the Dickinson website, the Wellness Center has one psychiatrist who is available on Fridays. Only psychiatrists can dispense medication. After a patient is put on medication, they need to continue to meet with a doctor to monitor side effects, such as suicidal thoughts. Psychiatrists are very strict about this. If a patient would happen to commit suicide because they were not being monitored, the psychiatrist would most likely lose his or her license. Therefore, I find it extremely unlikely that the one Dickinson psychiatrist dispenses medication to all these students. I find it equally unlikely that Dickinson is risking a lawsuit by giving students medication without regular counseling sessions.

Maybe I’m just more jaded than Soeller. I assume that every white person in the 18th century would qualify as a racist until I hear otherwise. And if a psychiatrist gives me drugs, I’m just happy they’re not misdiagnosing me and trying to put me in a hospital (which is not uncommon). Anyway, I conclude by giving Soeller a hearty “Welcome to America!”