I'm Dr. Paul Jenkins. A professional psychologist. You know when you see
therapy scenes in the movies or on TV, have you ever wondered just how accurate
that is or what a psychologist would think about it? Let's take a look at a
few clips together and I'll let you know what I think.
Way back in 1991, a movie came out called What About Bob starring Bill Murray and
Richard Dreyfuss. And this movie really got the attention of the psychological
community. I remember I was still in graduate school studying to become a
psychologist. But I had already had experiences with patients like Bob. And
so, it's pretty funny. But there's a therapy scene there I want to take a
look at with you. Let's take a look. -Thank you. Thank you for working again.
-Right there. The hankie. Well, first of all, before I comment about that, this setup
is a little weird to me. I know a lot of psychologists, I know a lot of
psychiatrists. This scene is being handled kind of like a corporate go in
to see the president of the company. Where the receptionist or the secretary
comes in introduces the person to the professional. In most professional
settings that I know, there's a waiting room, there's an area where people gather
they might interact with the front office staff. They might be invited to
take his seat and typically, the professional him or herself comes out to
greet their client or patient and invite them into the office. That's the way it
usually works. Now, I suppose there could be professionals in the field who have a
little more formal arrangement and someone brings them in and introduces
them. And that struck me as a little weird. But then when Bob reaches out to
shake hands with the doctor and he has a handkerchief in his hand. The thing that
struck me the most about that is that it's all too true. We're filming this
episode in 2020. And as you know, during a global pandemic people become more
sensitive to contact. We probably wouldn't even shake hands
during a pandemic. But he wanted to create a barrier here for his own safety
probably because of his anxieties. Probably about germs or spreading
illness or disease. Let's see how this plays out. -Should I call you Dr. Marvin
or Leo? -Whichever you'd like. -Call me Bob. -One of the interesting things about this
scene to me is that Bob is kind of driving it. And this is part of the theme
of the movie that he hijacks or takes over the entire process. And he's driving
the whole time. Here's this very formal therapist Dr.
Marvin who doesn't initiate the contact. That's the first thing that I noticed as
I was watching this particular therapy scene. He's not giving him any structure
or guidance. He's simply rolling with whatever is happening. And that seems a
little weird to me. Also, when Bob asked, "What shall I call
you?", he didn't give him any direction there.
He's okay with this patient calling him by his first name. That's just a little
weird given the formality of this particular therapeutic setting. -Call me
Bob. Is that your family? -Yes. -Oh, wait. Let me guess. I'm very good
at this. That's Harriet and then Ronny Gretchen and Rita. -This is a little weird.
First of all, if he got it right, that would be kind of creepy. And probably a
big red flag. I remember when I was being trained as a psychologist that we had a
lot of discussion about appropriate boundaries --therapeutic boundaries and
maintaining an appropriate professional relationship with our clients. For a
first-time meeting with a client, if they were to come into the room and get those
names right, that would be a little creepy because it would indicate there's
been some stalking going on. Now, as this plays out, we're going to see that he
didn't get it right. and that's what makes it kind of a funny
scene. But let's see how it plays out. -Wait, wait a second. Cecilia, Dorothy
and this is Kenneth and Bambi. -This is my son Sigmund. And my wife Faye and my
daughter Anna. And that's my sister Lily. -Now. There's a lot of things that are
funny to me about this. First of all, Bob is guessing. He has no idea who these
people are. He's guessing he gets it wrong. But it's
interesting what the therapists response is. This doctor played by Richard
Dreyfuss has a very flat affect. You don't see any enthusiasm or emotion
from him at all as he simply tells Bob what the names of his children are. The
reason this is funny to a psychologist is because he has named his children
Sigmund and Anna. If you're not sure of the significance of that, go look up the
Freud family and you'll see why. He's obviously a very Freudian therapist. Now,
that may not mean anything to most people. A typical Freudian psychoanalyst
would not openly share the names of his family with a new patient. That would
violate some of the doctor-patient boundaries that are pretty typical in
that kind of therapy. So, there's a little bit of irony here as an obviously
Freudian therapist is violating some of the tenets of that particular school of
thought. Just kind of a weird start to the whole session in a lot of ways. Let's
see if things get any better as they get into it.
Alright, already. Here's this therapist who simply sits back and he waits. I know
that different therapists have different approaches. But this doesn't even seem
fair to me. Given what this therapist already knows about this particular
client. He knows that he's got some issues. He knows that he's got some
anxieties. He greeted him with a handkerchief, for example. So, he knows
that but he's not offering any kind of guidance or support to even get the
session started. There's just a little weird to me. It could be that this
therapist is doing this diagnostically to try to figure out, "Okay, what's going
on with this client? What direction is he going to take?" He's going to find out
where this client is going to take it. But not establishing some kind of a
therapeutic rapport or direction or boundaries around how this is going to
work. I think is a recipe for some of the difficulties that this particular
therapist encounters as the movie goes on. But let's see how the session
proceeds. -Why don't I start? -Huh? -And there you go. Bob says, "Why don't I start?" He's
like, "Okay. This guy's not going to do anything. I guess it's all up to me." And
he's more than willing to do that because of who he is. I just thought that
was kind of a weird way to start a session. -The simplest way to put it, I
have problems. I worry about diseases so I have trouble touching things. In public
places. it's almost impossible. -When this movie was shot in 1991, what Bob is
describing here as being afraid of of diseases and going places and touching
things might have been an indicator of a higher level of pathology. I think
because of some of the things that have played out in our world as we have
experienced --outbreaks, pandemics, viruses. This is
probably becoming more general instead of more specific. In other words, there's
a lot of people that are concerned about that.
Unfortunately, it's becoming a more regular part of life instead of an
indicator of pathology. But in the movie, he's trying to set Bob up as this
paranoid person. I'm a little concerned about how our society is probably going
that direction as well. It's becoming more normal. -I have a real big problem
moving. -Talk about moving. -The response there. Talk about moving. This is really
the first therapeutic type thing that is said by the doctor in this particular
clip. This is a stereotypical phrase that a therapist sometimes uses. Talke about
moving. Its therapists speak for "help me to understand what you just meant
when you said moving." And it's funny because it's stereotypical. "Talk about ___"
whatever it is. -As long as I'm in my apartment, I'm okay.
But when I want to go out, I get weird. -Talk about weird. -Talk about weird... -Talk
about weird. Therapists is picking up on these key words that Bob is saying and
inviting him to go more into it. This is actually a pretty good therapeutic
technique when someone is sharing their story. "Talk about that. Tell me more about
that." It's funny because it's stereotypical but it's actually
something that you're going to encounter in a therapeutic setting as the
therapist tries not to impose too much of their own thinking at this point. But
they're still trying to draw out from the client what's going on for them. -Well,
I get dizzy sometimes, nausea, cold sweats, hot sweats, fever blisters. Difficulty
breathing, difficulty swallowing, blurred vision, involuntary trembling, dead hands.
Numb lips, fingernail sensitivity, pelvic discomfort. -Fingernail sensitivity. That's
funny. What's funny about this too is that he's finding every symptom he can
possibly imagine and just throwing it out there. It's like "Here's what's going
on with me, doc. Can you figure this out?" Meanwhile, the therapist is over there
just kind of taking it all in. I wonder what he's thinking.
This particular therapist it's kind of an interesting portrayal of a therapist
because he is very distant. Very removed from the whole interaction. Well, he's
even got a desk between him and his client. You know, that's something that I
noticed earlier in the clip and I hadn't even commented about it. It's interesting
to have a therapeutic setting where the therapist has this big barrier between
him or her and the client. Most of the psycho therapists that I know and that I
hang out with and that I relate to remove the barriers. They get out in a
chair where they can talk face-to-face without a barrier in between them. It's
really more of a connection rather than an aloof kind of distant separated
relationship like what we're seeing here in this particular setting. And now, as
Bob is sharing all of these symptoms, it just has me wondering, "Okay, what is it
the therapists thinking?" Let's see how it plays out. -Pelvic discomfort. -So, the real
question is what is the crisis, Bob? What is it that you are truly afraid of? -Okay.
There it is. So, the therapist now reveals to us what his thinking is. "So, the real
question is, Bob, what is the crisis? What is it that you are truly afraid of?" This
reveals to me that he had this agenda going on already
in his mind. The therapist is thinking about, "Okay, he's afraid of something.
Let's see what it is that he's afraid of." And he's been withholding sharing that
until this point in the conversation. And it suggests to me I'm not even sure he
was completely listening to Bob at this point. He's just waiting for the time to
insert his opinion or his own agenda about what's going on. That may be a
little unfair. Of course it's a theatrical depiction of a therapy
setting. Is that compared to a real therapy setting? It feels again like the
therapist is very separate from the client here. Not really connecting to
where Bob's coming from. Just looking for a chance to pursue his own agenda. -My
heart stops beating. What if I'm looking for a bathroom I can't find it. And my
bladder explodes. -Let's stop there. Because Bob just captured what I think
is at the core of every fear. And remember that the doctor is asking him,
"What are you really afraid of?" And Bob starts asking "What if" questions. What if
this, what if that? "What if my heart stops? What if my bladder explodes?" What if. See,
at the heart of every fear is a what-if question. And even though I see a lot of
kind of incompetent things that are demonstrated on the therapists part here,
he did get to the point where he was able to ask Bob, "Okay, what what are you
really afraid of?" And Bob goes right to the core of it by asking the what-if
questions. I think every fear is driven by the what-if questions. And not only
the question but the subconscious answer to that question which is "I can't handle
that." That's what paralyzes us. That's what
gets us stuck in our fears. That's why I has Bob feeling like he's stuck and he's
reaching out to this doctor in the first place.
All of these what-if questions. As this movie continues, if you've seen it, you
know that the therapist gets to be stalked by Bob
through the whole movie. And this is what makes it funny to us who are in the
industry. Because we've all had that client that's just a little too needy, a
little too desperate to get our attention or to spend time with us. And
he resorts to some very questionable therapeutic techniques later in the show
as he tries to get rid of Bob. And that's part of the humor of the show. But I
thought this particular segment where we look at the therapy session was
illustrative in a lot of ways. I hope we've enjoyed that. If you've seen this
movie and there's other parts that you'd like me to take a look at or respond to
a react to, I'd be happy to do that. Go down to the comments and leave me a
message about which part you'd really like to see me analyze or take a look at.
I'd be happy to do that. It's kind of fun to take a look at major media
productions and see how it relates to real life. Go to the Psychologist Reacts
Playlist here on the channel and you'll see how I've reacted to other shows or
programs that you might be familiar with.