Stilwell - Encounter Groupie

Another in my series of digitally restored cartoons from "Stilwell," the comic strip that ran in the Cleveland State University student weekly, The Cauldron, from 1971 through 1973. Encounter groups were a campus phenomenon at the time, under the auspices of at least one professor in the Psych department. These groups of students met supposedly to benefit psychologically from their group setting. A couple of people in my small circle of friends participated in these. I was a psych minor, and I remember being interested enough in them to inquire about joining one, and I have this vague memory of talking to the aforementioned CSU prof, in a one-on-one interview situation. I also remember him deciding that I wouldn't make the cut, though I don't remember what it was about the cut of my jib that didn't measure up to encounter group material. In any case, after that experience, I think I felt a little left out and thought that these groups might have been a bit cultish or at least cliquish, and I didn't need to be associated with either type of group, so there. I did work the subject into one of my cartoons, published on Feb. 22, 1973. The sarcastic reference to "Mister Peepers" is obviously a reference to the eye-contact games mentioned in panel 2, those being an example of the kind of exercises they'd do in these group meetings. But it's also a reference to a 1950s-era sitcom starring Wally Cox. Nostalgia freaks can see clips of the show on YouTube. I wasn't really making fun of the groups as much as I was merely referencing a campus phenomenon and contriving a joke to go with it.