The House connection is clear (evidently there is some past romantic link with the administrator who brought him to the hospital and he even sent out a couple of residents to investigate one of the patient's lives) but the characters are pretty much opposite in terms of their attitude toward patients. Dr. House would not approve of the touchy-feely approach.
Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Box 3055 x7295 [email protected] http://tinyurl.com/DrFroman Proverbs 14:15 "A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps." -----Original Message----- From: Michael Britt [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 11:25 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Mental I suppose I'm just skeptical of what television writers will do with this concept (I can just hear them pitching the idea to the TV execs: "It's "House" for the psych set!"), but I will lay odds that the show will depend on repressed memories for some of its stories and then we'll be back to re-educating the public about the truths regarding repressed memory. Michael www.thepsychfiles.com > Did anyone else see the first episode of the new Fox series "Mental" last > night? From the website it is: "a medical mystery drama featuring Dr. Jack > Gallagher, a radically unorthodox psychiatrist who becomes Director of > Mental Health Services at a Los Angeles hospital where he takes on > patients battling unknown, misunderstood and often misdiagnosed > psychiatric conditions. Gallagher delves inside their minds to gain a true > understanding of who his patients are, allowing him to uncover what might > be the key to their long-term recovery." > > It looks like it might be an interesting hook for some teaching about > clinical work and it might provide some training about the use of the DSM > and maybe even some pharmaceuticals but I don't know yet exactly what > message is being sent. It seems to be pretty much on the side of "if we > just treat the patients with humanity they will snap out of it" but it > does also kind of walk the line by saying that some will require long-term > drug therapy but it seems that primarily it is just good ole fashioned > human contact (something like a psychiatric Patch Adams). For example, to > help a person who strips naked because they are seeing everyone as an > alien and they want to show that they are human, the new director takes > off his clothes in the lobby with everyone else around to show that he is > also human and gain the patient's trust. Ignoring whether or not that > would really work, it does say a lot about the approach the program seems > to take. The first episode also seemed to hint at a developing story line > about the hospital making money from conducting drug trials. > > You can see the first episode online at: > > http://www.fox.com/fod/play.php?sh=mental > > Rick > > > Dr. Rick Froman, Chair > Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Box 3055 > x7295 > [email protected] > http://tinyurl.com/DrFroman > > Proverbs 14:15 "A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives > thought to his steps." > > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) -- Michael Britt, Ph.D. Host of The Psych Files podcast www.thepsychfiles.com [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
