Hollywood Psych: Difference between revisions
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A: Only one, but the bulb has got to really WANT to change.'' }}
[[Did Not Do the Research|Research is hard.]] While this is generally true of [[Hollywood Science|all science]], psychology in particular is vulnerable, as it's a very, ''very'' new field still under heavy development. Only recently has psychology emerged as a mature science with robust theories, and supposed "facts" of the past are [[Urban Legends|still in popular culture]] despite being [[Science Marches On|debunked]]. Writers fail to recognize this, and the [[Informed Ability|supposed professionals]] in their stories will quote woefully out-of-date representations of [[All Psychology Is Freudian|Sigmund Freud's]] theory of the unconscious, Carl Jung's collective unconscious [[
Further complicating things is the [[Rule of Cool]]: if there are multiple versions of a disorder, a writer will tend toward the [[Flanderization|most interesting, dramatic, or visible of them]]. Thus, in fiction, [[L Is for Dyslexia|all dyslexics can't read anything past a fourth grade level]], [[Tourettes Shitcock Syndrome|all people with Tourette's compulsively swear]], and [[The Schizophrenia Conspiracy|all people with schizophrenia think demons are out to cover up the truth of global warming]]. Many people, [[Reality Is Unrealistic|overexposed to the fictional versions]], are surprised to discover that not only are there milder versions of all these disorders, but the milder versions account for anywhere from 90% to 99.9% of the people diagnosed with them.
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*** This misunderstanding is likely due to the fact that schizophrenia literally translates into English as "Split Mind", though it's meant in the sense of broken rather than bifurcated.
** It's still called such by many people, on TV or not.
* On the topic of Psychopathy, the term is still used by Psychologists (but not Psychiatrists just to confuse you all) but not in the way that it's used on TV or indeed in any media. Sociopathy however is no longer in use. Currently definitions characterise psychopaths as being narcissistic but interpersonally charming, lacking in emotional depth and in particular empathy and highly anti-social, irresponsible, and impulsive. Please note that psychopaths are completely in touch with reality and are highly rational; this takes a break from many media representations which seem to equate psychopathy with ''psychosis''. When people also speak the word "psychopath" they talk about those "[[
* It probably was Hollywood that actually created the public idea of the 'psycho'- an [[Acceptable Target]] with a Flanderized condition that takes the most antisocial elements of psychopathy and psychosis and fuses them both into [[Ax Crazy]]-ness.
** In fact, successful CEO's and wealthy businessmen (not to mention dictators) can be clinical psychopaths - the traits described above make for an excellent way to shaft innocent people for personal gain without feeling a hint of remorse.
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** Writers, critics, and commentators like to use the word psychopath when they want to emphasize the monster hiding underneath and use the word sociopath when they want to emphasize the normal appearing facade.
* Any show to mention Asperger's Syndrome. In [[Real Life]], it's (to make it [[The Theme Park Version|simpler than it really is]]) the "milder form" of autism that tends to show up as sensory-related problems, social difficulties, and concentrated interests in a limited number of subjects. Many with it have above-average intelligence and the names [[Steven Spielberg]] and Albert Einstein turn up in any discussion about it at least once. However, the TV version of it always concentrates on the "difficulty with social norms" and "above average intelligence" aspect.
** The internet has its own
*** [[L. Frank Baum]] probably said it best... "Thereafter he walked very carefully, with his eyes on the road, and when he saw a tiny ant toiling by he would step over it, so as not to harm it. The [[Tin Man|Tin Woodman]] knew very well he had no heart, and therefore he took great care never to be cruel or unkind to anything."You people with hearts," he said, "have something to guide you, and need never do wrong; but I have no heart, and so I must be very careful."
*** Of course, Baum was trying to say that the Woodman ''did'' have a heart.
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** This is why it can be very hard to write insane characters; especially since the Hollywood version of "Crazy" is "someone obsessed with blood, death, and inflicting pain on others" or "Schizophrenic". A lot of sociopathic serial killers actually ''don't'' fixate on blood or death.
** The psychotic disorders, schizophrenia being the most well known, are usually what people think of when they hear mental illness. Mood and anxiety disorders are probably a close second. There are also dissociative, personality, drug related, eating, sleeping, and [[wikipedia:Mental illness#Disorders|many other kinds]] of mental disorders.
** The word "psychotic" itself has become ''the'' diagnosis of
* [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]], specifically the variant where you repress traumatic memories, causing angst, depression, or other mental problems. To "uncover" repressed memories was popular with psychiatrists in the 1980's and 90's, but is now pretty much seen as a scientifically and ethically dubious practice. Oh, it was also very popular in incest cases. Yeah, therapists actually [[Mind Rape|mind raped]] [[Moral Event Horizon|their patients into believing]] that they were molested by close relatives, and then put said innocent relatives in jail.
* According to much print media and the internet, any previously healthy and contented young person can very quickly develop an eating disorder of potentially lethal severity if she (usually girls) see enough pictures of [[Hollywood Thin]] people of their own gender. This is improbable, to say the least- the [[Hollywood Pudgy]] trope may upset and confuse young people, but genuine life-threatening eating disorders are still very rare, are [[Older Than Celluloid]], and usually have no single cause, rather most specialists see them as an expression of complex psychological and emotional problems- most people are not susceptible to such extreme behavior patterns for any significant length of time.
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* There was a recent ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' episode where having synesthesia was depicted as being like the conclusion of ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey|2001]]''. They wish it were that cool. In reality is really lame stuff like 7 having an intrinsic redness to it. And while there are slightly less lame versions (musical pitches having intrinsic colors is a version that many world renowned musicians have put to good use) none of them are anywhere as cool as that.
** Then, of course, there's the first episode of the sixth season where psychiatry in House's universe apparently never left the 70's. Admittedly, the creators stated that some of the mistakes were intentional to make allusions to ''[[One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest|One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest]]''.
** Another recent episode had a girl with DID that came as a result of a car accident she was in when she was a year or two old, which killed her father; she blamed it on herself because she had been crying. [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|Forgetting for a moment the debate that exists around the validity of multiple personalities]], two things are wrong with this: one, she was ''a baby'' when it happened, an age when she wouldn't have been able to even remember the incident, and certainly would not have been able to put together that her crying caused the
* A psychiatrist treating Niki in an early episode of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' diagnoses her with Multiple Personality Disorder, outdated terminology and all. In real life, one of the main symptoms of DID is that ''the victim isn't aware of the other personalities''.
* ''[[Monk]]'' not only seems to have both Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder simultaneously, he is a picture of retro-Freudian "neuroticism," seemingly to teeter into Generalized Anxiety Disorder (with agoraphobia, naturally), Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and sometimes even sociopathy. Underlying it all, of course, are deep, unrealized issues surrounding his dead wife. This is of course [[Played for Laughs]] when it isn't [[Disability Superpower|giving him supernatural insight into crimesolving]].
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*** Also in the very first episode, the unsub brings up [[Split Personality]] and Gideon correctly calls it DID.
** In fact, [[Criminal Minds]] as a whole is really bad about this. The majority of the psychology on the show is either out of date, misapplied, grossly exaggerated, or just flat out wrong, which can result in a lot of exasperation for psychologists watching the show. The most [[egregious]] of these is the premise of criminal profiling itself, which has been shown more than once to be inaccurate to the point that lay people do just as well on it as professionals.
* Fans of ''[[Bones]]'' have commented that the behaviour of doctors Brennan and Addy looks a bit like Asperger's, though its never mentioned in the show. This is not to even mention her view of Psychology seems to be
** Honestly, there's a good chance that even most anthropologists would debate this. Large swaths of anthropology is done using ethnographic observations, which make no claim to Brennan's beloved objectivity. Instead this method encourages the researcher to make their biases explicit because the work cannot be done in an unbiased manner (thus allowing the analysis to approximate objectivity even though the observations were very subjective and biased). In fact, depending on where they sit theoretically, some researchers might reject the notion of an objective "truth" entirely. While psychological research is largely done using controlled experiments in laboratories - very strange that Brennan doesn't prefer that.
*** Dr. Brennan is a ''physical'' anthropologist, primarily, and that has actually a lot more in common with biology than it does with ''cultural'' anthropology. As for objectivity in psychology, that was for a very long time mostly the realm of biological psychology, which she may or may not have gotten much exposure to. If the psychology departments she's had much contact with were dominated by the...looser schools, it's probably the view she would have developed of psychology.
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[[Category:Psychology Tropes]]
[[Category:Hollywood Style]]
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[[Category:Hollywood Psych]]
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