If you’ve been reading my blog, you already know I believe therapists on TV and in movies are often badly portrayed. Today’s post organizes the types of therapists we’ve all seen into categories designated by TVtropes.org, a useful resource that describes itself as “a catalog of the tricks of the trade for writing fiction.”
According to TVtropes.org, therapists on TV and in movies tend to be shown in three different ways:
- The Harmful Shrink: “The worst kind,” of course. Possible traits include cruelty, lack of empathy, non-compliance with confidentiality ethics, pill-pushing, likely to cultivate dependency for financial gain.
- The Well-Meaning, But Dopey And Ineffective Shrink: Possible traits: liberal, highly empathic, a good listener, but with an inability to have a helpful perspective or strategies.
- The Awesome Shrink: “He can be compassionate and understanding where everyone before has been cruel to the protagonist. Alternatively, he provides the character in question with the kind of Tough Love he’s always needed. Regardless, he’s always smart, almost always cool and never resorts to drugs when they’re not needed.”
As with all typologies, there’s often overlap between categories. Also, many characters may not fit neatly into any one type.
Some examples from this blog are listed below of therapists on TV and in movies.
The Harmful Type
- “Therapist Boundaries That (Hopefully) Go Without Saying”: What About Bob?‘s egotistical therapist (Richard Dreyfuss) tries to kill his annoying patient (Bill Murray).
- “Halloween for Therapists”: A now-deleted post from “Minding Therapy” had a couple video clips, first from the film Dead Bang and second from TV’s Dexter, featuring bad shrinks.
Well Meaning, But Ineffective
- 50/50 . Crossing of boundaries by an earnest inexperienced therapist (Anna Kendrick) places her somewhere between this category and potentially harmful.
- “Prime” Therapy: Meryl Streep as a therapist who seems to want to do right but can’t.
- “Silver Linings Therapy Playbook”: Dr. Patel tries to encourage client Pat to make healthier choices but doesn’t model this very well himself.
Awesome
- “A President in Therapy”: Adam Arkin helps President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) on The West Wing.
- “Meet Dr. Sidney Freedman“: The psychiatrist on M*A*S*H played by Allan Arbus. As stated in my post, “Although I’m a fan of Freedman’s wry sense of humor, progressive politics, and ability not to be fazed by things others may consider bizarre, I do need to point out that the schizophrenia joke written for this character has probably helped perpetuate the myth that schizophrenia consists of having multiple personalities.”
Multiple Types
- “Therapist Boundaries That (Hopefully) Go Without Saying”: The “good” therapist (Robin Williams) who achieves a breakthrough with Will previously chokes his client in Good Will Hunting. Is he both awesome and harmful?
- “One TV Therapist’s Scary Dilemma“: Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) on The Sopranos is generally considered competent, but her limits were also severely tested, leading to highly questionable urges.
- “A Charlie Brown Therapy“: “Peanuts” character Lucy Van Pelt is not a psychiatrist—she just pretends to be for “5 cents please.” But, oddly, her services can be helpful.
Additional examples can be found at the TV Tropes website.
