TY - JOUR A1 - Dillon, James J. T1 - A letter to a new faculty member: How to stay sane in the academy JF - The Humanistic Psychologist, Vol. 46 (2018), No. 2, pp. 147-158. [Online ISSN 1547-3333] [doi.org/10.1037/hum0000085] N2 - This paper presents the text of an imagined oration from a senior faculty member to a newly hired faculty member on the topic of how to stay sane in the academy. It begins by characterizing the basic problem at the heart of the university: students are not learning as much as they should and professors are not teaching them in a way that ensures they do. The problem is one of dysfunction and denial. The university is not able to effectively perform its main function and the involved stakeholders pretend everything is fine. Seen in the light of Fromm’s (1955) criteria of mental health, many aspects of modern university life are quite >insane<. I discuss three specific things to avoid that will protect the faculty member’s sanity: avoid the >unstated compact< between faculty and students, avoid the prospect of a promotion to the administration, and avoid the lure of popularity and politics. I then discuss three affirmative steps to enhance faculty mental health: consider first things, honor the call of truth in the world and your discipline, and regularly recall the deeper purpose of the university. The paper concludes with a candid analysis of why the professoriate’s public prestige has precipitously fallen over the past 40 years. (APA PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved) Y1 - 2018 ER -