Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 18, 1967, Winnipeg, Manitoba Bruce Moss weekend Magazine hell night a doctor studies the stress involved in fraternity initiation rites at Mcgill University by Bill Trent weekend Magazine Unwin seated aided in his study by the Young men behind All members of they from left to right Sven Pat Michael Courtney Peter Bracher and Duncan it had been an exhausting and the stripped of his clothing and personal pos had been dressed in sackcloth and his face smeared with Peanut without food since the previous he had been put through a gruelling exercise he had been forced to run up and Down stairs Many times and to do he had been struck across the buttocks with a after 20 harrowing hours of physical exertion and third degree he had been allowed to sleep for 10 when they woke he had lost All track of and now they were leading him through a dark ened room to a table to View the body of a com stretched out Between two rows of flickering the boy heard someone this is what can happen to those who dont make then he it might have been an indoctrination or a brain washing procedure for a political prisoner in a totalitarian country but the event actually took place one of Mcgill University 18 fraternity houses in it was part of the initiation rites for membership in that when the boy gained it was to realize the he had viewed was that of an other student playing fraternity somewhat shaken themselves that the boy would faint during the then told him he had proved himself worthy and would be accepted As a full fledged member of the Canadas approximately 100 fraternities Are secret societies except for those who have become members very few people have Ever been permitted to look in on their and some times initiation Illust motions by Groom Bardell they led him through a darkened room to a table to View the body of a the boy heard someone this is what can happen to those who dont make and at that Point he one person who did get permission was Robertson an Australia born lecturer and research fellow in Mcgills department of Psychia try and director of the adolescent service of the Allan memorial Institute of psychiatry of the Royal Victoria whose concern Over the question of stress among University students produced the first scientific look at super secret North american fraternity a confraternity Man started his project three years ago As a Means of studying the problem of stress among older adolescents in a no Laboratory today his casebooks Are literally bulging with notes medical and Psychia tric findings that May some Day have a practical application for Young people who have difficulty cop ing with the pressures and tensions of modern Unwin estimates that this per cent of All University students will consult a some will have major most will have minor but the fact that this percentage would seek professional help at he is in recent there has been considerable criticism from and even from that higher standards of education Are creating undue pressures for but is this actually so who each year for the past four years has received a Fellowship from the Canadian medical research Council to look into the problems of adolescence he has done research in such Fields As juvenile adolescent psychotherapy and continued on next Page weekend Magazine 1967 7 ;