23 - 29 August 2001
Issue No.548
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 23 - 29 August 2001 Issue No.548 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Plain talk
Psychiatrists are complaining these days. At a time when Freud's credibility is being seriously questioned, with numerous English and American writers calling him a fraud, psychiatrists increasingly feel that they are misrepresented in the media, especially on television and in films; and with good reason, I think.
The other day I watched a television episode about a psychiatrist asked to test a patient with violent tendencies. Soon I could not help feeling that the director must have had a grudge against psychiatrists, because the doctor in question was portrayed as a complete buffoon. It was a funny enough performance that solicited a good deal of laughter, but at the same time it was a thinly veiled attack on the practice of psychiatry in general.
And this is how I became interested in a remarkable article published recently in The Independent, the title of which was "Psychiatrists are being driven mad by their portrayal on the screen." In the course of the article, a number of psychiatrists bemoaned media misrepresentation of their profession. Such portrayals, they insisted, are "quite harmful beyond all jokes and gags, because they put people off seeking help."
The article seems to have been triggered by a Radio 4 survey in which 50 eminent psychiatrists around the world were asked to describe their feelings about the way their professional life is portrayed on screen. According to the survey, the vast majority of psychiatrists felt that the cinema gave them a raw deal. Based on the answers they provided, Radio 4 went on to identify and define five generic types of screen psychiatrists, ranging from the "intellectual buffoon" to the "unethical exploiter."
The article traces the emergence of the concept, not so much of psychiatry but of the psychiatrist. In the Middle Ages, psychiatrists were known as "persuaders" because "they would attempt to persuade patients that they were not seeing things or hearing voices." It was not till 1846 that the term "psychiatrist" was introduced into English usage. But even then, the most common term used to denote what we would call a psychiatrist or a therapist today was an unflattering term: "alienist."
A level-headed, unprejudiced professor of psychiatry whose testimony is cited in the article believes that no professional group likes the way they are represented on screen. Here in Egypt, for instance, stereotypes of the businessman have given rise to much tension and anger among scions of the profession. The stereotype presents the businessman as someone immaculately dressed, smoking a huge Havana cigar in a villa with a swimming pool and a bar stocked with dozens of bottles. Almost always, the businessman is a thoroughly corrupt human being.
The Independent expanded further. The "harmless but ineffectual buffoon who is usually shown as monocled, with a heavy eastern European accent, and who is fond of Freud," for example, was seen as a reflection of the filmmaker's own psychological insecurities Commenting on this screen image, the writer of the article in question goes on to explain a number of significant points in this connection, displaying both insight and personal interest. "Poking fun at psychiatrists," for one thing, "is a way of counteracting our fears of mental illness. And with Hollywood directors lining up to have their repressed memories liberated, how can we expect them to escape the shadow of Freud in their films?"
In the case of the stereotype of the unethical exploiter, on the other hand, the character in question is almost always a sleazy boundary-crosser. According to the article, he "knows that sleeping with patients is wrong, but does it anyway."
There are positive stereotypes too: "the omniscient or idealised analyst who wears sweaters not suits; heals not through any psychiatric technique but through love;" "the shrink on the brink" who is "hard-working and all-too- human."
Regardless of how relevant such an analysis of media representations of psychiatry -- stereotypical or otherwise -- might be to real-life psychiatrists and their work, going through The Independent article, one cannot help exclaiming, "Thank God I don't need treatment."
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page