w w w . on l in e t h e r a p y instit u t e . c o m
REEL CULTURE
Jean-Anne Sutherland
I
n July of 1999, Entertainment Weekly (EW) made mention of Hollywood’s preoccupation with therapists in several recent films. When asked about the depiction of therapists in film, Dr. Steven Hyler (Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University) responded, ''I'm not really worried about the way we're portrayed. We like a good movie just like anyone else.'' There are two ways to respond to Hyler’s statement. The first is to agree: movies are fun and, as an old friend of mine used to joke, “Why ruin a good story for want of a few accurate facts?” On the other hand, media images (in this case, film) are one ingredient that contributes to our social constructions. Research has shown a correlation between watching evening news and racial attitudes. Research has explored the relationships among media images, young women and body perceptions and found that, yes; these images wield the power to impact girls’ experience of their own bodies. Not that researchers assert a causal relationship between media images and behavior (that is, one does not view imagery and then, zombielike, walk out an exact imitation). But current media studies tend to agree that we are influenced in more active ways, as we watch movies and engage with them. What does this mean for the average person coming to therapy for the first time, yet knowing little of it except for what has been experienced in the dark of our theaters? As EW noted in 1999, the film industry continues its love affair with therapy, therapists and mental illness. Films depicting therapy in action range from the absurd (What About Bob; Analyze This) to the touching (Ordinary People). Therapists or psychiatrists in film are represented as widely divergent, as well. Michael
Caine in Dressed to Kill comes across as the uberappropriate and smart therapist, until the end of the film when we discover that he, in fact, is the psychokiller. Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense is the sensitive, present psychologist - until we discover he’s actually dead. And the premise of The Shrink Is In has the doc suffering a breakdown, after which—what else? - a patient steps in (because it is that easy). And lord help anyone who lands in a mental institution: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; Girl Interrupted; Manic—these movies invariably depict professional dysfunction. It is the INSTITUTION that is crazy, not the patient. It is the medical profession’s devotion to rigid diagnosis codes that trap misunderstood people inside the walls of bureaucracy. Of course, not all images are incorrect, exaggerated or flatly derogatory. At least we can say that, in general, film today depicts mental illness with much greater balance and compassion than in the past. Films like As Good as it Gets and A Beautiful Mind tend to elicit great sympathy for characters suffering from mental illness. It is clearly stressed how often such illnesses are misdiagnosed and misunderstood. Perhaps, then, current cinema has played some valuable role in removing some of the stigma once associated with seeing a therapist. And this is a positive thing, even if those clients do enter therapy with their heads a brim with Hollywood’s interpretation of therapy sessions, therapists—the social construction of mental illness. Jean-Anne Sutherland, Ph.D. is assistant professor of sociology at University of North Carolina Wilmington, USA with one of her research focuses being sociology through film.
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