Anybody who teaches Abnormal Psychology will tell you that students taking the course often suspect they suffer from the disorders they study.
For example, I won’t say that I suffer from a full-blown case of personality disorder, but I do tend to talk in my head, causing my speech to seem a little erratic during dinnertime conversation.
I also have a habit of getting sweaty palms when I’m in church. Anxiety?
Part of the problem of mental health, though, is separating those amusing character traits and typical anxieties from the truly debilitating conditions that plague those suffering from mental illness.
With the appointment of Phil Meilman to the directorship of Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS), the University is taking an ambitious step toward addressing mental health in the Georgetown community.
I say ambitious not because the University is finally filling a position left vacant since John Kolligian’s resignation last September, but because of the energy that Meilman brings.
Disclosure: I had a limited role in the interview process that led to Meilman’s hiring.
I therefore had the opportunity to hear his vision of a campus psychiatric service that takes a more active and visible role in helping students.
I imagine that Meilman was chosen for this reason most of all.
Kolligian’s brief tenure at Georgetown led to a significant expansion of CAPS services, which was to precede a greater role of CAPS in the community. Meilman’s arrival seems to indicate the willingness of the University to continue this fairly liberal approach to continual improvement of all aspects of campus life. His appointment represents yet another addition to the group of administrators and faculty who appear genuinely interested in students.
I am not so na?ve as to believe that a solid vision and an outstanding Ivy League resume will solve all the problems in the world. In addition to the typical issues surrounding mental health, such as identification of illness and social stigma, Meilman faces all the eccentricities of the Georgetown psychology that we take for granted.
Unlike Meilman’s former position at Cornell University, Georgetown is a relatively small and centralized community. Students socialize in large groups, which means that one’s personal demons either affect more people, or else they remain deeply private.
