I don't recall seeing anything about this study on TIPS when the following report came out last year. This news item describes an interesting investigation of the way that psychologists are often portrayed in the popular media. Jeff --------------------------------------- http://www.trustmed.com.tw/news/2000/06/14/20000614005e.html Hollywood puts the 'psycho' in psychologist MIAMI, Jun 12 (Reuters Health) - Would you like fava beans and a nice Chianti with that therapy session? According to a new study, Dr. Hannibal Lecter has plenty of company when it comes to Hollywood's portrayal of unethical, demented and downright murderous psychologists in popular films. In a survey of characters in 45 recent films, "over half of the psychology professionals engaged in some type of unethical behavior," according to Dr. Angela Lipsitz of Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. She noted that 22% of psychologist characters in films killed another character--"I would say that's far different from what you find in (real-life) psych professionals," she mused. Lipsitz presented the findings here Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society. Speaking with Reuters Health, she said she first got the idea for the study after deciding to use film clips as a method of illustrating common psychological concepts for her students. "But, as I was preparing for the course what struck me was all the mis-images and misconceptions surrounding psychology." She and her colleagues examined the use of psychology professionals as characters in a slew of recent films, including hits like "Silence of the Lambs," "The Prince of Tides" and "Good Will Hunting," and lesser-known works such as "Body Chemistry III." Besides having a decided penchant for murder, 22% of cinema psychologists ignored standard professional ethics and had sexual relations with either a patient or a patient's close friend or relative. This weakness for bloodshed and illicit sex may have been due to the fact that a very large percentage of Hollywood psychologists appear to suffer from psychoses themselves. "Half the time it was multiple-personality disorder, which is very rare and a controversial diagnosis," Lipsitz pointed out. Many others seemed helpless in the face of their own dysfunction. "In 'What About Bob?' the therapist (played by Richard Dreyfuss) talks to his kids with puppets because he can't relate to them," Lipsitz said. "Or take Barbra Streisand in 'Prince of Tides'--her husband is having an affair, her kid hates her." Movie psychologists and psychiatrists tend to become very intimately involved in their patients' lives--to an extent frowned upon by real-world professionals. "If you got your knowledge of psychology professionals from film you would think 'oh, they are going to get really involved in my life, they're going to talk to my family members, and meet me for a drink occasionally, or go watch my choir practice or my sports team to get a better feel for what I'm like," Lipsitz said. But, she noted, "that's not true. Most therapists just see their patients in their 50-minute therapy hour and that's it." Many movies also present viewers with a warped or outdated view of psychology itself. Lipsitz cited numerous examples where busts or pictures of Freud--whose theories have lost favor with most of today's professionals--are prominently displayed in doctors' offices. Lipsitz is particularly put off by films that imbue 'reclaimed' memories with miraculous healing power. "Many films show you the situation where someone can't remember something," she explained. "And usually something is done to help the person recover the memory--hypnosis, or taking them back to the scene of the event." The result? An immediate catharsis, a "dramatic, defining moment when the cure happens and the person is mystically better." Unfortunately, Lipsitz said, that is not how it works in the real world. Memory, for one thing, is notoriously unreliable, and "therapy is usually a slow process, improvement is incremental, and there's not usually just one day when there's this dramatic breakthrough and everything's okay." Lipsitz is concerned that big screen psychology may raise false expectations in viewers. "I think that some people may be disappointed in their therapist--that they can't call their therapist at midnight and expect the therapist to cheerfully answer and talk to them," she said. Worse still, Hollywood's take on psychologists may keep some people from seeking help at all. "I mean, we see that nearly a quarter killed another character or many were engaging in inappropriate sexual activity," she pointed out. "So people may think 'wow, I don't think I want to see this person.'" The Kentucky researcher is aware that Hollywood requires dramatic scripts to lure and hold its viewers. But Lipsitz believes the psychology professional has played the bad guy for far too long. "I would say, consider at least doing something differently," she said. "It would be nice sometimes for the unethical person NOT to be the psychologist." Copyright c 2000 Reuters Limited. -- Jeffry P. Ricker, Ph.D. Office Phone: (480) 423-6213 9000 E. Chaparral Rd. FAX Number: (480) 423-6298 Psychology Department [EMAIL PROTECTED] Scottsdale Community College Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626 Listowner: Psychologists Educating Students to Think Skeptically (PESTS) http://www.sc.maricopa.edu/sbscience/pests/index.html
