Unprotected: How universities can be hazardous to student health
Posted on November 15th, 2006 by Warren
I have interviewed the anonymous author of the new book Unprotected and briefly reviewed the book. Released tomorrow, the book provides a very sobering look at unrestained sexuality on campuses and how campus health services are often accomplices in the risky behavior (not at GCC of course :).
Sounds like an interesting book.
From the brief description in your review, I have questions which I probably can’t answer without reading the book.
For example, I don’t understand her decision to publish anonymously. With her training as a psychiatrist she surely has the skills necessary to gather and present evidence to support her theory; anonymity limits her ability to take a leading role in the conversations she hopes to start.
And, in the case of Heather, mentioned in your review, what is controversial about a therapist encouraging a young woman to develop healthy relationship boundaries related to casual sex? Who are the therapists or where are the therapeutic standards which refuse to acknowledge credible evidence?
Not that I’m looking for answers here… thanks for piquing my curiosity Warren, and I hope to take a closer look at the book for answers.
[...] The author of the book Unprotected allowed her identity to be revealed on the Dr. Laura show yesterday. She is Miriam Grossman, M.D., a campus psychiatrist at UCLA. She told me in an interview in preparation for the article I wrote about the book that she was initially quite afraid of reprisals. She has now changed her mind. [...]
Steve: Sadly, I have been in counseling case conferences where this kind of intervention was discouraged. Even many years ago in my master’s program, there was caution about being too judgmental about such things. My impression is that the sexual permissiveness on many college campuses is not discouraged by the health services. What is encouraged is condom use but limiting sexuality is not supported by university programming.