Leon Tec M.D., child psychiatrist and author of Targets and Fear of Success, says that Harvard students and professors probably have as many fears as everyone else. Yet MIT might outrank the Real World and Harvard: While "people who have a good understanding of what is going on need not be more anxious," he says, "scientists don't necessarily have more perspective. MIT may have more people with anxiety dreams. There are more suicides at MIT."

IN THE BLUE BOOK, ON THE STAGE

Meanwhile, most Harvard professors are hard-pressed to come up with exceptional nighttime fears--or at least for the pages of Fifteen Minutes. What, then, goes on during REM sleep of the FAS? Tenure terrors? Frus trations with the Harvard Coop's textbookdepartment? Visions of walking into the FacultyClub and suddenly realizing they're stark naked?

Hardly.

Few want to appear unique in their dreamtopics: "Oh, you know, they're the usual type," isthe common response. "The usual type" of dreamsoffered by professors concerns the theme of beingunprepared.

"When you're not prepared, the natural thing isto be anxious," says Tec.

Like Epps, Professors Edward O. Wilson andPhilip B. Harper dream of not knowing the answers.

"I have the `I'm on my way to a final exam as astudent and I'm very anxious because I realize Ihaven't studied' dream. I have this a couple oftimes a year," recounts Wilson, who teachesScience B-15, Evolutionary Biology. "There'ssomething about being a student that stays with usin our unconscious, all our lives," he says.

Harper, an assistant professor in theAfro-American studies and English departments,also feels the lasting effects of student life:"Whenever I have this dream, it feels intenselyreal," he says.

One empowering night, Wilson recalls, he wasable to master his dream. "I stopped and said `Idon't have to take this exam. I'm a Harvardprofessor.'"

Even now, English professor Helen H. Vendlerfears unpreparedness in front of the class. "It'sa surefire occurrence, no matter how long I'vebeen teaching," she says. Vendler, rather thandreading catastrophe, says "the vigil night beforeclasses, I'm always anxious about the usualthings--coming to class without a book, notremembering a quotation."

Such anxiety dreams should seem all toofamiliar, suggests the UHS therapist. "Being aprofessor is very tied to being a student. In bothcases someone is going to grade you. Studentsdon't realize how nervous professors get beforegiving lectures. It's about performance and ego,so you have anxiety dreams about this."

Indeed, several professors, as well as ProvostJerry R. Green and Dean of Undergraduate EducationLawrence Buell, say they have experienced suchdreams of failure before an audience--oftencomposed of the harshest critics of all, their ownstudents.

Senior Preceptor in Romance Languages MarliesK. Mueller recounted the dreams that two of hercolleagues told her. "One had a nightmare beforeclasses started, that all the chairs are turnedaway from him and he has to start teaching to thebacks of people. Someone else had a dream wherethe students file out one by one and leave theclassroom." And this wasn't even shopping period.

Harvey G. Cox, Jr. professor at the DivinitySchool, is equally concerned with performance. Buthe dreams beyond Sanders Theater: he dreams ofBroadway, even the silver screen. "I'm in a playand I haven't memorized my lines. It's pretty muchthe same, sometimes a musical comedy, sometimes amovie, but it's always with all the audiencewatching," he says.