Jonathan Adler ’00, who researches intersections between psychotherapy, personal identity and the stories we tell about ourselves, offers a lecture on his work at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College’s Pettengill Hall, Keck Classroom (G52), 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

The talk, Talking about the Talking Cure: Psychotherapy Narratives and Mental Health, is sponsored by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Psychology Club and open to the public at no cost.

A doctoral candidate in psychology at Northwestern University, Adler explores links between psychotherapy stories and mental health. His work has been covered by The New York Times and Australian Public Radio.

The theory of narrative identity proposes that the collection of stories we tell about ourselves constitutes our sense of self. Such stories often arise from psychotherapy, which marks an important experience in the evolution of identity. Indeed, many people feel that therapy helps fundamentally change who they are.

We create stories about such transformations to consolidate and hold on to the experience. If therapy changes identity, the story of the therapeutic experience serves as the axis upon which narrative identity turns. Yet, Alder notes, therapy stories are also important in developing and maintaining mental health during and after treatment.

Therefore, understanding the nuances of therapy stories can potentially inform theory, research and clinical practice concerning identity development, psychotherapy processes and outcomes, and the intersections of these fields.

Miyamoto will climb Alaska’s Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak at 20,320 feet, in June 1998. He also will conduct interviews with local Native Americans and mountaineers who have climbed Mount McKinley — also known as Denali — to determine how the mountain and the act of “conquering” the peak have influenced the native culture and religion. Miyamoto’s project will conclude with a portfolio presentation and lecture to the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community in September 1998.

Miyamoto has been a rock-climbing instructor at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ for new-student orientation trips. A graduate of Deerfield (Mass.) Academy, he is the son of Iwao and Yoko Miyamoto of Tokyo.

Established in 1996 by Margaret V.B. and C. Angus Wurtele, the Philip J. Otis Endowment commemorates their son, Philip, a member of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ class of 1995, who died attempting to rescue an injured climber on Mount Rainier in summer 1995. Otis was deeply concerned about nurturing a sense of responsibility for the natural environment, and the endowment sponsors opportunities for study, exploration and reflection by students, faculty and other members of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community. The endowment also supports an annual lectureship on environmental issues and the spiritual and moral dimensions of ecology.

“Lively colleges need not choose between these two pictures of creativity and community,” she said. “Having both means that everyone shares a commitment to doing creativity within the framework of a community, but that different individuals can act freely on this commitment in different but mutually enhancing ways.”

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ President Donald W. Harward also spoke, citing the college’s creation of a professorship in environmental studies, the 10th anniversary of the Olin Arts Center and plans for a new academic building as examples of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ encouragement of expressions of creativity.

They will begin classes on Wednesday, Sept. 4. The distinguished scholar Catharine R. Stimpson, director of the MacArthur Fellows program of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, will speak during an all-college convocation the same day to mark the opening of the college’s 142nd academic year.
Among ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ new students are:

• A woman from New Jersey who is developing a computer-based method of teaching Braille to blind children and who hopes to patent her invention.
• A man from the tiny Maine lumbering town of Jackman who is a fully qualified emergency medical technician and whose parents are both EMTs. He told ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ officials he intends to become a doctor, in part because of his admiration for two doctors in Jackman who are ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ graduates.
• A man from Massachusetts who suffered a severe eye injury while playing basketball; his father designed an improved face shield that has enabled the student to continue in athletics. He plans to play sports at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. The shield has been adopted by several players in the National Football League.
• A woman who is among the top-ranked amateur water skiers in the nation and who will join the champion ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ water-ski team.
• A Florida man who was recruited as both a soccer player and placekicker in football. He intends to play both fall sports at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

The class of 2000 at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ includes 266 women and 227 men from 45 states and 14 other countries. Of the total, 50 percent are from New England, 10 percent from Maine.

Stimpson, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ trustee, will speak at 4 p.m. on the main quadrangle in front of Coram Library.

A leading expert on women’s studies, Stimpson formerly served as dean of the graduate school at Rutgers University, where she remains a professor of English. In her post at the MacArthur Foundation, she administers the so called “genius grants” awarded annually to outstanding achievers in a variety of fields.

She is a former president of the Modern Language Association and founder of Signs, the interdisciplinary journal of women’s studies. She last spoke at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 1990, when she received an honorary degree.

Also speaking at the ceremony will be ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ President Donald W. Harward; Martha A. Crunkleton, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty; and the Rev. David Wood, interim college chaplain.

Music will be provided by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Choir under the direction of Marion R. Anderson, professor of music.

The new students are spending the days before classes begin in a variety of orientation activities. Many are taking part in the Annual Entering Student Outdoor Program (AESOP), which includes hikes and canoe trips to remote locations around Maine and New Hampshire.

Others are participating in activities sponsored by the college’s volunteer office, including clearing trails at Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary in Lewiston and repair and paint work at local churches and social-service agencies.

Following the convocation exercises, students and faculty members will take part in an all-campus picnic and an evening of music on the college’s main quadrangle.

In the event of rain, convocation will be held in the Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building.