Major Side Effects spoiler ahead: Read this post only if you’ve already seen the movie and/or want to know how psychiatrists are portrayed in it.
The psychological thriller Side Effects (Steven Soderbergh) incorporates issues about the potential pitfalls of experimental antidepressants. Rooney Mara‘s lead character Emily Taylor is married to Martin (Channing Tatum), who’s been in prison for financial wrongdoing. After trying a bunch of prescribed drugs with unwanted side effects, Emily begins taking an experimental and fictional antidepressant called Ablixa, given to her by her psychiatrist Jonathan Banks (Jude Law.) Catherine Zeta-Jones plays another psychiatrist who has treated Emily.
There’s a murder. Did Emily do it? Did she mean to do it? Or did the pills do it? If so, is her shrink at fault?
First, The Not-So-Big Revelations
Some viewers may not be aware of how enmeshed the relationship between psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical industry can actually be. Succinctly put by psychologist Tyger Latham (“In Bed with Big Pharma”), “…(T)he psychiatric field has allowed itself to be co-opted by the industry and failed to fully question the scientific merits of those psychoactive drugs which they prescribe.”
A related issue presented in Side Effects is the ease and quickness with which some shrinks make psychiatric diagnoses. Kelly Patricia O’Meara, author of Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills that Kill, points out in a pertinent post that “the psychiatrist merely has to briefly listen to the patient’s life complaints and, voila, the psychiatrist is able to determine the exact alleged mental disorder.”
Bigger Revelations
Rex Reed‘s strongly negative critique offers a huge Side Effects spoiler: “What started as a cautionary thriller about drug abuse…now turns into a battle between two psychiatrists for the soul of their patient—one who keeps her medicated, the other who turns out to be her lesbian lover.”
Well. As we know that Dr. Banks isn’t the lesbian lover, hmmm…who could it be? The one well-known star that every critic mentions is another psychiatrist but then barely says a word about? The former shrink of Emily?
Anil Vora at Bi Magazine describes this Side Effects spoiler thusly: “The ‘surprise’ plot twist in the final act is that Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is bisexual. By this point in the film we have also learned that Siebert is self-serving, a corporate sellout, and a hypocrite. But she has also done something completely unethical. To get her to confess to this crime, Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) seduces her. We learn that Taylor had previously seduced Siebert when she was Siebert’s client in therapy. Siebert had allowed herself to be seduced and had sex with Taylor.”
But, fact is, in real life the shrink is the one who’s always responsible for setting the boundaries. It doesn’t matter who seduces whom. Crossing this line is considered exploitative and highly unethical.
Siebert also plots to commit murder—an infraction so obvious it doesn’t need to be spelled out in ethics manuals.
In addition, as internist Dr. Frank Spinelli has expressed (“Harmful Side Effects“), another aspect to this situation that sucks is that “(i)n perpetuating the stereotype of the crazed gay killer, Soderbergh marginalizes gay people.”
Psychiatrist Helen M. Farrell writes (Psychology Today) about some other ethics violations in Side Effects. For one, shock treatment is used as a threat against the patient, Emily; another is that, in an entirely vengeful act by Dr. Banks, Emily is eventually committed against her will to a mental institution.
Dr. Sasha Bardey, the forensic psychiatrist who served as the movie consultant, has apparently indicated that the film’s plot is largely based on real cases or incidents. Therefore, Psyched Out author O’Meara asks: “…(O)ne has to wonder who is the real-life patient that has been committed to a mental institution because the psychiatrist wanted revenge?” In other words, does this actually happen? How about the other things? How often?
And what about other actions of Siebert, such as blackmailing another psychiatrist (Banks) and committing securities fraud?
In Conclusion
Don’t get me wrong. When I saw Side Effects, I was interested in the plot and didn’t always mind that psychiatry was being lampooned and criticized. I’m also okay with some Hollywood-type stretching of reality, whatever the topic.
But will the movie makers out there ever give shrinks a break? Present a more balanced picture? Can’t they lay off the tired ethics breaches, particularly that of becoming sexually involved with a client—especially when little is done to point out how wrong this is?
In the finale, after all, what are the actions that get Siebert into trouble? The securities fraud and conspiracy to commit murder, not having sex with a client. The latter, you see, is only an issue when the patient complains—and this never happens in popular movies.
