# Help needed: Psychiatrist from fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156 "2013-06-17T01:59:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/21 "2013-06-17T06:11:46Z")
It’s been close to a quarter of a century since I’ve read any of them, so I can’t think of a suitable one off the top of my head, but surely one of John Irving’s novels must have just what you’re looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/22 "2013-06-17T06:18:36Z")
Paging [Hari Seldon.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php) [Hari Seldon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari_Seldon), please pick up the White Courtesy Phone. ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/23 "2013-06-17T06:58:37Z")
Robert B. Parker’s Spencer, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall novels all share a common world which includes Susan Silverman, a psychiatrist. She is Spenser’s significant other and Sunny Randall’s therapist. I can’t recall if Jesse Stone has had any direct interactions or not with Susan. -DF ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/24 "2013-06-17T11:43:07Z")
“I now call Doctor McCoy to the stand.” “Service rank: Lieutenant Commander. Position: ship’s surgeon. Current assignment: USS Enterprise. Commendations: Legion of Honour. Awards of Valour. Decorated by Starfleet surgeons.” “Doctor, you are, on the record, an expert in psychology, especially space psychology. Patterns which develop in the close quarters of a ship during long voyages in deep space.” - from COURT-MARTIAL. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/25 "2013-06-17T12:13:23Z")
“I’m a surgeon, not a psychiatrist!” The City on the Edge of Forever ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/26 "2013-06-17T13:26:14Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > “I’m a surgeon, not a psychiatrist!” > > The City on the Edge of Forever “Yes, Mister Spock, what is it?” “I picked this up from Doctor McCoy’s log. We have a crewmember aboard who’s showing signs of stress and fatigue. Reaction time down nine to twelve percent, associational reading norm minus three.” “That’s much too low a rating.” “He’s becoming irritable and quarrelsome, yet he refuses to take rest and rehabilitation. Now, he has that right, but we’ve found…” “A crewman’s right ends where the safety of the ship begins. Now, that man will go ashore on my orders. What’s his name?” “James Kirk. Enjoy yourself, Captain; it’s an interesting planet. You’ll find it quite pleasant – very much like your Earth.” - Shore Leave So, sure, he’s not a psychiatrist; he’s just a trained medical professional who evaluates, diagnoses, treats, and studies behavior and mental processes. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/27 "2013-06-17T13:35:12Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Essentially he whole of _Portnoy’s Complaint_ is a monologue of Portnoy speaking to his psychoanalyst. However, (I am not sure because it is a very long time since I read it) I do not think we learn much if anything about the analyst. I am not sure if he even gets to speak. A single line, the final one in the book. Dr. Luther Brooks in **[No Way Out](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042792/)**, but that’s a major role. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/28 "2013-06-17T13:42:26Z")
Dr. Patel in Wally Lamb’s [“I Know This Much is True”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Know_This_Much_Is_True) would fit what you’re looking for. She’s an Indian psychologist that helps the main character deal with having a mentally ill brother. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/29 "2013-06-17T13:53:06Z")
Constance Leidl in Kate Wilhelm’s Constance and Charlie mysteries. She is warm, empathic, and her use of Ericksonian hypnotherapy is rather good. Even though the mysteries concentrate on, well, mysteries rather than her therapeutic practice, you can see her abilities. Start with **The Hamlet Trap.** ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/30 "2013-06-17T13:55:00Z")
Dr. Stanley Keyworth, the psychiatrist played by Adam Arkin on\* the West Wing\*. Suffice to say that he is to other psychiatrists what the regular cast of the show is to actual politicians - smarter, wittier, more idealistic and more professional. [Here he is talking to the President.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0lg34WeJzM) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/31 "2013-06-17T13:57:45Z")
In SPHERE, Michael Crichton makes the protagonist a psychologist – but he’s so low-key that he _acts_ like a minor character, figuring that his teammates are the ones who should handle the exploration and even the hypothesizing about the problem du jour; they can analyze _that,_ Norman’s job is analyzing _them_. He has no interest in playing explosives expert or scuba diver; he just wants those dynamic folks to – cooperate and get along with each other. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/32 "2013-06-17T14:33:10Z")
A few more: Dr. Theodore Kriezler, in Caleb Carr’s **The Alienist**. Definitely an admirable character. Max Lieberman a **A Death in Vienna** , by Frank Tallis Freud himself in **The White Hotel** , by D.M. Thomas. A fictionalized version, so I think it counts. Sorry…didn’t notice the minor character preference of the OP. Will rethink. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/33 "2013-06-17T16:47:17Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Define ‘literature.’ Does it have to be something highbrow, or any trashy novel. > > Does it have to be written, or will a movie or TV series do? > > Wiki’s [List of fictional psychiatrists](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_psychiatrists) There’s also the page on “[The Shrink](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheShrink)” at TVTropes, which breaks fictional psychiatrists into three basic types: The Harmful Shrink; The Well-Meaning, But Dopey and Ineffective Shrink; and The Awesome Shrink. Presumably this third type is what the OP is looking for. While they don’t involve psychiatrists as such, some of the novels in Susan Howatch’s “Church of England” series involve key scenes of what look very much like psychotherapy or psychoanalysis in an ecclesiastical context. For example, in the first novel of the series, [Glittering Images](http://www.amazon.com/Glittering-Images-Susan-Howatch/dp/0449214362/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1371486758&sr=1-2), the main character has a nervous breakdown or psychological/emotional/spiritual crisis and spends time talking with Jon Darrow, a “spiritual director,” to get to the bottom of his issues. Darrow is a minor, and admirable, character in this book, but is the protagonist of the next book, in which he has his own crisis and undergoes his own spiritual therapy. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/34 "2013-06-17T17:18:29Z")
Thanks, all. Some great suggestions. … never occurred to me that Wiki would have such a list. Sigh. The list is, of course, woefully incomplete since it doesn’t include the shrink from PSYCHO, nor Dr Chumley from the play HARVEY. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/35 "2013-06-17T17:26:58Z")
> [@Civil\_Guy](#): > > I can’t think of the title; been many, many years since I’ve really tried to look for it. The fictional story takes place during World War II, European theater, at an Army Air Corps hospital, the psychiatric wing. One of the first scenes features a soldier going in to interview for an assignment as an orderly. The doctor asks the soldier what experience he’s had in psychiatric hospitals, and the soldier says that he’s been in a few. Through a typical paper-work snafu, the soldier’s papers saying that he’d been in psych wards got translated as his having experience in psych ward work, but, well, he’s really willing to do his best. > > The soldier just has a little Tourette’s Syndrome problem, is all. The doctor figures that the thing to do is order the soldier to cuss him out first thing in the morning, but at no other time, and that that might provide the soldier with enough emotional relief. This relationship endures. > > … and I Can’t Think Of The Name Of The Doctor, which is also part of the book’s title. Arghhh! They also made a movie about it, I think. > > The book is a little dated, I think. I believe in a major crisis scene, an airman finally breaks down into full schizophrenia (is that possible?), demonstrated by his going into a transgender episode. Offensive by today’s standards, yeah. > > I would like to learn the name of the book, just for my own emotional well-being. Sounds a little like [Captain Newman, M.D.](http://www.amazon.com/Captain-Newman-M-D-Calvin-Rosten/dp/0440110602) by Leo Rosten. A good psychotherapist, but obviously not a minor character. Also loosely based on a real person. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/36 "2013-06-17T17:28:04Z")
Dr. Susan Calvin is a brilliant psychologist who shows up in Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot stories. Granted, she’s a robot psychologist. Details, details. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/37 "2013-06-17T17:43:35Z")
> [@Tapiotar](#): > > Freud himself in **The White Hotel** , by D.M. Thomas. A fictionalized version, so I think it counts. Freud also appears in the non-canonical Sherlock Holmes novel _[The Seven-Per-Cent Solution](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven-Per-Cent_Solution)_, although he’s a major character. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/38 "2013-06-17T17:50:59Z")
No mention of Dr. Melfi from **The Sopranos**? You could also mention her psychiatrist, played by Peter Bogdanovich. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/39 "2013-06-17T18:06:50Z")
There’s a minor character in Tom Clancy’s _Without Remorse_, who’s a psychiatrist and consults with the Baltimore police detective (Jack Ryan’s father) investigating a string of drug-related murders. Dr. Sydney Farber and he appears in maybe two scenes, IIRC. Based on the crime scene evidence and methodology, he suggests the killer is some kind of commando/special forces type, later on even mentioning the SEALs, which were supposedly not well known at the time of the novel’s setting. A “man on a mission” who’s seriously pissed off and taking down drug dealers with a lot of skill and in all sorts of imaginative ways. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156/40 "2013-06-17T18:26:59Z")
Not literature, but the regular Law & Order shrinks (Skoda, Olivet, & Huang) are all portrayed as competent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-needed-psychiatrist-from-fiction/661156.md?page=3)