Farnsworth Hits Misuse Of Psychiatric Records

Minneapolis, Minn., Oct. 5-Dr. Dana Farnsworth, director of the University Health Services, today criticized college admissions committees that ask applicants whether they have ever had psychiatric treatment.

In an address to the Association of College Admission Counselors, Farnsworth said that "the mere presence on an application form of the question 'Have you ever consulted a psychiatrist?' suggests a prejudice against any applicant who has done so."

An applicant's having had psychiatric treatment is no guide to predicting his success or failure in college, Farnsworth continued

The central determinant of success, he said, "is whether or not the applicant has the intellectual capacity to do the work required of him and the emotional maturity and motivation to use his intelligence effectively."

Conversely, Farnsworth said, an applicant who has never had psychiatric treatment is not necessaritly free from emotional conflict.

An absence of psychiatric treatment in an applicant's history may mean that he is dealing successfully with whatever difficulties he has, Farnsworth said.

"However," he added, "it may also mean that a person has failed to perceive his own problems or, having perceived them, either could not get professional help or chose not to get such help because of the consequences."

Farnsworth did not single out colleges by name, but he said Harvard practices no such overemphasis on psychiatric information.

If a student's record indicates that he has had serious emotional problems, Farnsworth said, admissions committees should give him the opportunity to secure whatever evidence he desires from his psychiatrist or physician for presentation to the college's medical department.

"In this way the professional consultant is brought in as a person working for the applicant rather than someone who is a threat to him," Farnsworth said.

Otherwise, he continued, the admissions committee would have to ask questions that violate the confidence between psychiatrist and patient in order to get significant information.

"To threaten confidentiality and to put an applicant in a position in which he is either dishonest or perhaps self-destructively truthful is not only unnecessary, it is immoral," Farnsworth said, destructively truthful is not unnecessary, it is immoral," Farnsworth said.

It is too easy to jump to the conclusion, he said, that students with high intelligence are more likely than less intelligent students to have psychiatric disorders.

Being bright, Farnsworth said, does not predispose a student toward emotional problems