On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 6:29 AM, Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 11:50 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Jeff Conaway, an actor who came to fame in the late 1970s as a high > school greaser in the hit movie musical "Grease" and as a regular on the TV > series "Taxi" but more recently was known for his appearances on "Celebrity > Rehab With Dr. Drew," died today in Encino. He was 60. > > > > And I'm sure Drew Pinsky will point to the stats that state many > > people simply do not take to rehab, but I cannot help but place some > > of the blame on him, his show, and the people who watch it. Maybe I'm > > wrong, but I can't think of another reason to watch that series other > > than schadenfreude. And the only way to convince people to appear on > > it is to con them into believing a public spilling of innermost demons > > is a healthy part of the recovery process. Yes, Mr. Conaway did this > > to himself, but instead of getting private counseling or treatment by > > experts who are not interested in ratings or fame of their own, he got > > -- well -- screwed by another snake-oil salesman who happens to have a > > D and R in front of his name. > > > > It is to the point now that whenever a doctor appears on television, I > > just assume everything he/she declares as true is a lie and > > vice-versa. I've stated before that I think guys like Drew, Sanjay, > > and Phil do a disservice to their respective fields, ultimately > > pushing viewers away from therapy that might otherwise benefit them, > > or pushing them towards some sort of quackery that will cause them > > harm. > > I could not take any confidence in your argument. Specifically I don't > know if a private therapist would have made a positive difference. > From what I know of rehab, which comes from a distance of never going > through it myself or helping someone close through the process, there > are just too many ways for it to fail. You can't say that Conaway > harmed himself by doing the TV show and would have been fixed up if > he'd done it another way. And since you can't say that you can't blame > Pinsky. > > I think people watch these shows for two reasons: first they, or > someone close to them, has gone through rehab, is going through rehab, > or needs to go to rehab. They know and feel the problems intimately > and feel good when they see the process succeed. Second, people are > tired of the air-brushed images publicists and celebrity media put out > of the lives of the stars. It's meaningful to them to see people who > are said to have perfect lives struggle. > I don't know why people watch this show - I did not really know it existed until I read about it following the Conway story (though I think maybe I did read about it on this list sometime in the past). I have had lots of individual patients, and groups, that I am sure would have been very entertaining to watch on a tv show. Had I known I was on a tv show, I probably could have made them even more entertaining (though perhaps at some risk to the best interests of my patients). Tom is certainly correct that there is no guarantee that "real" rehab would have worked. But we do know that professional therapy is significantly more effective than placebo treatment, and I think we have to count a television show as placebo treatment, not real therapy. Part of the harm of a show like this is that it might encourage people who need real therapy to do the fake TV therapy show instead. I looked Pinsky up on wikipedia, and see that he comes from Pasadena. He worked at two area hospitals that I also did some training at, and the wiki's say he is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at USC's School of Medicine. That does not have to mean as much as it seems - medical schools can give the title of clinical professor to just about anyone who puts on a band-aid, but a quick search over at the Keck web page shows that Pinksy spoke at their commencement service a few weeks ago, and contains a very glowing bio ( http://keck.usc.edu/en/About/Administrative_Offices/Office_of_Public_Relations_and_Marketing/News/Detail/2011__spring__drew_pinsky_to_deliver_commencement_address). Apparently he is board certified in both internal medicine and addiction medicine. Personally, I find his media work to be unprofessional and unethical, and I am surprised that USC chooses to be associated with him, but I do know that in my own field of clinical psychology there are legitimate differences of opinion about this kind of thing - and I guess USC is not hurt financially too much by the association. I think there is a role for health care professionals in the media, to educate the public. But Pinsky seems to me to have crossed over that line into entertaining the public - at the expense (or, at the very least, at the potential expense) of people in need of professional treatment who might otherwise by called his patients. This is unethical. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. 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