University of Virginia Library

Coles To Speak
On 'Mind's Life'

By MICHELE FAISON

Harvard University
psychiatrist Dr. Robert M.
Coles will deliver the annual
Page-Barbour Lecture Series
today, tomorrow, and
Thursday at 8 p.m. in Gilmer
Hall Auditorium.

Dr. Coles, who has been
called "the most influential
living psychiatrist in the U.S."
will focus his lectures on
aspects of "Irony in the Mind's
Life."

Mental Ironies

In the lectures, Dr. Coles
will deal with some of the
ironies and ambiguities of
mental life, beginning with an
analysis of Christian and
secular assumptions about
human nature ranging from the
Old Testament to secular and
religious philosophers.

He will examine three
novels - James Agee's "A
Death in the Family,"
Elizabeth Bowen's "Death of
the Heart" and George Eliot's
"Middlemarch" – for what
they show about the
psychological issues that
children and adults must
contend with.

Dr. Coles said that the
intention of the lectures is "to
harness theological,
philosophical and literary
observations to the task of
psychological scrutiny."

Harvard Graduate

A graduate of Harvard who
studied at Columbia University
and the University of Chicago,
Dr. Coles now serves as
research psychiatrist at
Harvard.

He is the author of more
than 350 articles and more
than a dozen books, most
concerning the South. Dr.
Coles is known for his ability
to obtain articulate comments
for his books from usually
taciturn farmers.

Dr. Coles and his emphasis
on "Breaking the American
Stereotype" were the subject
of a cover story in Time
Magazine in February 1972.