EIGHT THE MICHIGAN DAILY FRIDAY. ,+ 17V.itOm 9.01. lQRX EIGHT TIlE MICHIGAN DAILY r- u~x Auku.~Ajl ~41, lDU& Fj ehavioristie Pigreons Introduce reshmen to Psychology Ideas.. By MERLE JACOB How long does it take to train a pigeon to bowl? A good pigeon trainer can do it in 30 minutes. And just as pigeons can be train- ed, so can people be trained out of mental and emotional illnesses through behavioral psychology, Prof., James McConnell of the psy- chology department said yesterday morning in his lecture on "Men, Machines, and Madness." McConnell was one of a series of University professors who have been participating in the fresh- man orientation program of stu- dent-faculty discussions. "Man is a machine which when it breaks down can be fixed by reaching in with the proper tools," McConnell proposed. "Just as bio- logical medicine did not get off the ground until doctors adopted the attitude that man's body was a biological machine, neither did psychology until it started ex- perimenting with the human mind." Change In discussing the 'science of emotional reaction, McConnell explained that behaviorism is just becoming an important part of psychology. If a man had a men- tal breakdown 200 years ago he was placed in an institution where it was assumed he was out of God's grace and infested by devils. He was beaten and chained in trying to cure him. Around 1900 Freud developed the theory of thel id, ego, and super ego which has carried psychiatry up to today, the professor explained. "However there is no evidence that Freudian psychotherapy has ever cured anyone," McConnell stated. "Freudians would of course refute this, but looking at the hard core cases in our mental wards would disprove their claims." Behavioral psychiatry assumes that "there ain't nothin' - up there," or in other words there is no mind or soul, only behavior. Man Machine . McConnell said that men could build a computer that looked like a man and program it to speak, think and act. They could even program it to think it had a soul and free will, but just because it thought that wouldn't mean that the computer had a soul. "Just because men think they, have something inside them like. a soul, doesn't necessarily mean that they do," he added. McConnell explained that just as men can teach pigeons to bowl and mice to run through mazes by rewarding them with food when they do the right things, so psychiatrists can do the same with the mentally retarded and the mentally disturbed. Sick Children "Ivar Lovaas, an assistant pro- fessor of psychology at UCLA, has done a number of experi- ments with autistic children with extremely successful results." Autism is a form of split per- sonality in -children in which the child does not speak, is com- pletely withdrawn from the real world, generally sits in the cor- ner and rocks himself, and is very self-destructive. Lovaas too reasoned that in- stead of loving and petting these children whenever they started to I injure themselves, the children should be punished. These ,chil- dren had learned that by harming' themselves they would get at- tention. Cure Lovaas took a child who had been strapped to a bed for seven years because he was so self- destructive and released him. When the child began to. beat himself he was put in a room by himself. Seven hours later the doctors came in, cleaned up the blood, and put him to bed. Lovaas continued this experiment for one week, and by the end of that time the child was no longer beating himself. "The amazing thing is that Lovaas has cured these children of their wild behavior in a matter of weeks, and in a few months he1 has taught them normal behavior. Yet when he tried to extinguish this learned behavior it took over a. year with some children and never with others," McConnell said. He concluded the lecture by stressing his point that men are wild and crazy machines, and that the trouble with crazy people, is that they act crazy. Behavioral psychology tries to cure this be-, havior. McConnell has been famous for his work with flatworms while, studying the physiological bases of learning and memory. In 1963,. he. received the Research Career Award from the National Insti- tute of Health, made on the basis of a nationwide competition. McDonnel graduated f r o m Louisiana State University in 1947 and came here in 1956. GOALS OUTLINED,: \ English Composition Seeks Clarity, Cogency ' By MEREDITH EIKER the audience-the instructor andE;a fellow students-also needs an The aim of freshman composi- imagination, tion courses is to get students "to Dr. Schulze suggested that the , write clearly, cogently, and with course be thought of as one in an awareness of what it takes to thinking with words and using write," Prof. Earl Schulze, acting language as a tool for self- chairman of freshmani English expression and not merely as an classes, said yesterday. exercise in grinding out 700 words a F In a brief -talk given as part every two weeks. of the series of faculty lectures!- _ k.; Y-<- for freshmen, Schulze explained 2Z 0. 0- that the problem of poem writing on a college level is not the re- sult of the student's not being able to write but of his not being'Mas asked to write often enough. r: Pre-college education is par- tially to blame, Dr. Schulze ex-Aw1 plained, since there is not enough emphasis on writing in elementary and high schools. However, be- cause communication today de- By PETER SARASOHN pends more on talking than on4 ", writing, students do not receive A University political science enough everyday practice in ex- professor told a group of approxi- pressing themselves on paper. mately 80 freshmen yesterday that .h Emphasize Issues, Conflict "the sickness of the 20th century The freshman English composi- is the sickness of moral confu- tion courses will emphasize writ- sion, intellectual anarchy, and xH ing on public issues and ideas of spiritual despair." conflict so that the student will Prof. Thomas Chapman was have the opportunity to analyze speaking as one of the participat-an cag t ie s a problem and communicate his ing -lecturers in a series sponsored thoughts. This is the kind of writ- by the University Activities Cen- ing which students are asked to ter of the Union-League. His lec- do on essay examinations and ture was titled "The Internal papers throughout their college Crisis of Western Democracy." careers. Man today is "gripped by fear, Dr. Schulze also informed the as a result of alienating himself freshmen of a new Writing Lab from God and discrediting the located in the Bureau of Psycho- reason with which he was endowed logical Services. Organized last by God," he said. - year on a small experimental The tragedy is, he emphasized, basis, the lab will enable the that "in his anxiety to escape student who is weak in grammar, from utter futility and meaning- spelling, or vocabulary to master less existence he is tempted to these areas on his own. After give up his most priceless heritage taking a diagnostic test the stu- -his freedom-to any man who dent will attend the lab as often promises deliverance from inse- as he feels is necessary in order curity." Man is tempted to put to gain competence in a particular his faith in the most absurd doc- area. trine, to submit his will to the While the Writing Lab is open most brutal dictator, if only he to all students at the University can find a meaning to his exist- (i N T ERNAT I ONAL G-P CHAMP IONS) and residents of Ann Arbor, only ence, he added. limited facilities are available and He pointed out that alienation____ therefore mostly freshmen will be as a feeling of being "cut off from encouraged to take advantage of society," is documented in modern = them. Dr. Schulze estimated that art as "it has no beginning, no some ninety students will be using end, and no focus." He also cited the lab this semester. plays by Edward Albee and Ten- Writing-Art, Discipline nessee Williams and William Dr. Schulze further discussed Faulkner's "Sound and the Fury" writing as both an intellectual as examples of this alienation. discipline and an art which re- "Some people hold that the quires a capacity to handle in- democratic ideal 'of equality is formation and to analyze it. He the root of the problem," Chap- said that there are "few really man said. However, if the masses good writers around" because good have come to power as some writing needs both an awareness philosophers believe and "where of the'. audience being addressed the tastes and the judgements of - and a control of subject matter the masses become the standard of and language. For this reason public life, the result is the writing done in freshman composi- 'tion classes will be strictly. ex- jdeeta h oetcmo, 'T E~ 4QR ' S pository so that the studentwill denmnatran o scom on THE WORLD'SGREATESTVALU be well acquainted with the rhet- teoiaera onfotitudsady toAII1l Al~"\VF'T/ oric of definition. and persuasion. theaverge oiatttudevan I However, Dr. Schulze assured average of attitudes and N TWO-WHEELED TRAN SPORTATION the freshmen that they will need "Modern man is primarily a ', a great deal of imagination in the consumer and in our present day " course in order to see and to un-satst capitalism provides the an easy thumb to SPORT CENTER derstand an issue and to recogize a feasible approach to the problem ga utnumberuetion wyen,"he440 WASHTENA W js post Arborand) assigned. Knowing the values of shoul have more goods. "Eco- nomic activity has increasingly or call 761-2650 become an end in itself to which the spiritual nature of man is subordinated. "Ours is a fragmented society, Chapman said. Man has beentry>Fn~;5, analyzed out of existence; hey..1 %fyt %:'t ° ' has lost his identity with society." 0 01 THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN OFFICE OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS presents its 1965 FALL PROGRAM LECTURE SERIES of 8 outstanding speakers in theology, law, literature, sociology, and psychology. Sept. 13 & 14: MILAN OPOCENSKY, Lecturer. in. Systematic Theology, University of Prague, Czechoslovakia. Sept. 24: RICHARD SHAULL, Prof. of Ecumenics, Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey Oct. 11: WILLIAM F. LYNCH, S.J., Visiting Prof. of Religion, Carleton College, Minn.; faculty member, St. Peter's College. Oct. 20, 21, and 22: HANS HOFMANN, Th.D., Writer and lecturer in Theology and Psychology of Religion; Sometime Professor of Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass. Nov. 1: WILLIAM STRINGFELLOW, LL.B., Practicing Attorney in Harlem, Author and Lecturer. SPECIAL CBS TV FILM: "THE BERKELEY REBELS" Thursday, Sept. 2: 4:15 p.m -Rackhom Auditorium 7 :30 p.m. -Multipurpose Rm., Undergrad Library, 3rd floor WEDNESDAY NOON LUNCHEON BOOK DISCUSSIONS Beginning Sept. 1 and continuing through November 17 Michigan League, Conference Rm. 2 12:00 Noon-1:00 p.m. d ontY ECONO-CAB A Nov. 2: C. ERIC LINCOLN, Prof. of Sociology, Portland State College, Oregon; author: The Black Muslims and My Face Is Black. An International Conference on "ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON VIET NAM" Friday, Sept. 17-Open sessions and seminars !r If LU .L