Exam time is approaching, which means there has been an uptick in Osgoode’s focus on mental health. With all the calls for “self care!” and “yoga!” it can be tempting to view the school as a bastion of mental health advocacy, but we should instead cast a critical eye onto these efforts and recognize that the stress is coming from inside the house.
A professor recently told a class of 1Ls that they need to domesticate stress because they have decided to enter a profession where stress will more or less be their constant companion and that lawyers in general tended to be deeply unhappy people. Although well-meaning, this advice paints a bleak picture of what awaits those of us who make it through law school and continues to place the onus for mental health at the level of individuals, thereby leaving the status quo of the profession itself unchanged.
Within law school itself, such advice completely misrepresents the ways in which the law school is complicit in exacerbating the mental health challenges its students face. In 1L, students are deliberately placed in high stress situations by the school itself and are being told that they have a responsibility to deal with it. The problem with advising students to “domesticate stress” is that the school has, in effect, released a pack of rabid wolves and tasked first year students with transforming them into cuddly puppy dogs.
The question that an individualistic approach to stress-management leaves unasked is, who is this exercise serving? What is the purpose of all this stress? Will any of this transform us into more effective, empathetic, or justice-minded lawyers? It seems disingenuous for the school to advocate for mental health on one hand and make 1Ls sit three-hour exams worth 100% of their grade on the other. As exams start, by all means take advantage of every single mental health and relaxation program that the school has to offer, but never forget the adage ‘fish discover water last’. We are immersed in this stressful environment, but none of this is normal or natural. As students, we must advocate for curriculums that centralize, rather than side-line mental health and recognize that it’s not self-care we need, it’s us-care.