Robin Williams’ character in Good Will Hunting, maybe?
A major character, but Martin Dysart from EQUUS. His colleague would be minor.
Fine by Samuel Shem. But it’s the protagonist, not a minor character, who’s the psychiatrist. (Shem, whose real name is Stephen Bergman, is himself a psychiatrist.)
I’m kind of curious why you just can’t make up a character. Are all the characters in your story based on other literary figures?
It’s an obscure children’s book, but Dr. Harry Hope from Cherry Ames at Hilton Hospital, by Helen Wells, fits your criteria exactly.
Stone sees Dr. Dix; ex-cop turned shrink, helping Jesse with his drinking problems and occasional insight on cases.
He’s hardly a minor character, but Damien Karras in *the Exorcist *is a psychiatrist, and he’s a very positive, relatable character.
There’s Dr John Stillingfleet in two Agatha Christie novels: “Third Girl” and “Sad Cypress”. He’s a minor character, albeit playing key roles in the plots.
In the Sayers-verse, there’s Sir Julian Freke, who is a renowned psychiatrist, but he plays a major role in “Whose Body”, so I don’t know if he meets Dex’s criteria.
Not all, but several. It’s kind of inspired by Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series…
Joanna sees a psychologist in The Stepford Wives. Unlike the rest of the professionals to whom Joanna tries to tell her suspicions, the psychologist takes her fears seriously and encourages her to leave Stepford.
The social worker in Push by Sapphire, or the movie Prescious. I’m amazed about how well she handled that final confrontation with Precious’s mother, which would move most people to overpowering anger.
Would comic books count? There are heroes Doctor Leonard Samson and Karla Sofen (Moonstone, a now-reformed villainess) and the villain Doctor Faustus in the Marvel Universe, and the villain Professor Hugo Strange in the DC Universe.
That’s it. Thanks.
How about psychoanalysts? Not just psychoanalysts, but Jewish psychoanalysts, and lots of 'em?
The first book in Israeli mystery writer Batya Gur’s “Michael Ohayon” series (police detective) is set in their world:
What about Dr. Darryl Nolan, the psychiatrist who helped House when he had his breakdown? He was portrayed as an intelligent, compassionate doctor who would stand up to House’s bullshit.
There’s also Malcolm Long, the psychiatrist who worked with Rorschach in Watchmen–he was helpful if somewhat ineffectual.
There was an article in Psychiatric News a number of years ago, when Prince of Tides and Silence of the Lambs were both fairly recent, that stated that according to Hollywood, Bad Psychiatrists sleep with their patients and then kill them, whereas Good Psychiatrists just sleep with their patients.
I wouldn’t say that either model really touches on what we actually do on a day to day basis… :rolleyes:
Deanna Troi, Ship’s Counselor, Star Trek:The Next Generation
Judith Rossner of Looking for Mr Goodbar fame wrote an interesting novel about psychoanlysis - August. The story is recounted from the point of view of the psychoanalyst Dr. Lulu Shinefeld.