I’m a registered psychotherapist *(I know!) * and always enjoy seeing therapy done in fiction.
My personal fave is Dr Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting - specifically this;
“If you ever disrespect my wife again, I will end you. I will fuckin’ end you. Got that, chief?”
It sings doesn’t it!
I liked early Dr Melfi in The Sopranos but that wore pretty thin; and as for Dr Elliot Kupferberg naming Tony as a client at a dinner party of therapists - well I just don’t know.
I think overall the therapist for me would have to be Dr Molly Griswald in Tin Cup. Yow! The transference!
Two of my favorite mental health professionals from TV/movies are Dr. Marvin Monroe from The Simpsons and Dr. Swanson from Office Space:
Peter So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that’s on the worst day of my life. Dr. Swanson What about today? Is today the worst day of your life? Peter Yeah. Dr. Swanson Wow, that’s messed up.
Claude Rains as the sympathetic Dr. Jaquith in Now, Voyager. He takes Bette Davis away from her horrid mother to his sanitarium for a good rest, and pretty much saves her from having a total breakdown.
I just watched a movie this weekend caled The Movie Hero with Jeremy Sisto. It was an awful movie. The plot is that Sisto walks around talking to “his audience” all the time, pretending he’s in a movie.
He goes to see a shrink - he happens to be her first case, as she’s just out of school - and he immediately decides she is his “love interest” (in movie terms) and that his audience now expect the two to fall in love. So he begins to pursue her.
Only, she’s engaged (to a twat novelist, of course) and oh yeah she’s his therapist so she tells him it will never happen.
But, he keeps pursuing her, over at least three weeks. He shows up at her house, the fiancee berates him (because of course she’s told the fiancee Sisto’s mental health history), he stops showing up at sessions, she finds him, some other bullshit happens, they end up together.
The whole plot was so unethical and so unbelieveable that it made me cringe. I can’t believe I watched all the way to the end…it did me no good whatsoever.
So, yeah - a vote for the worst psychologist in movies - the lady from The Movie Hero.
*Dr. Sidney Schaefer: Fascinating, Don… I suppose it’s the conditioning of motion pictures, or television, or maybe it’s just it’s the times we live in, but… killing is serious business, yet this little card makes it somehow less shocking… acceptable in a way! You mean to say you can actually legally kill someone?
Don Masters, CEA Agent: Yeah, and it bothers me sometimes that I don’t feel guilty about it. Don’t you think that’s psychotic behavior?
Dr. Sidney Schaefer: No I don’t! It explains your utter lack of hostility. You can vent your aggressive feelings by actually killing people! It’s a sensational solution to the hostility problem*
Yes, Richard Dreyfuss’s character (the psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin) is a reasonably sympathetic one, even if he is a bit uptight, and his family loves him in spite of his faults, so if you identify with him you might have trouble enjoying the movie.
Another good movie is Mumford, although I’d agree with the assesment at the end, “nice but forgetable.” It does have Jason Lee skating around, but I don’t remember much more about it.
Yeah, I always liked Skoda more than Olivet–he always came off as more professional.
I was also impressed with Andre Braugher as the psychiatrist on this season’s premiere of House.
And, a bit off topic, and no disrespect to the victims, but anyone wanna bet that the shootings by the psychologist at Ft. Hood winds up as a plot on Law & Order or one of the CSI’s in the near future? I see Jeffrey Tambor in the part.
There is HBO’s In Treatment with Gabriel Byrne. It was sort of like listening in on a therapist’s sessions with 4 clients struggling with different issues. Very raw, simple, and powerful. Then you get to see the therapist’s own session (as a client) with his mentor. There are two seasons so far and they just announced that a third season is planned.
