The Shrink: Difference between revisions
→Newspaper Comics: Added to example
m (revise quote template spacing) |
(→Newspaper Comics: Added to example) |
||
| (17 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 11:
Some works feature psychiatrist characters who bounce back and forth between these categories or multiple psychiatrists who cover different types. And, as always, keep in mind that these categories are somewhat simplified. Not every character is going to fit precisely in one of the three types.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Harmful ==
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* Dr. Crane of the ''[[Batman]]'' franchise was a university psychologist studying the effects of fear on the human mind. He got kicked out and [[Hilarity Ensues|became a villain.]]
** Hugo Strange may count as well, especially in the ''[[The Batman]]'' incarnation. Also Harley Quinn's origin, as detailed elsewhere. Batman writers hate psychiatry.
Line 21:
** Moonstone was mentored by [[Meaningful Name|Doktor Faustus]], an enemy of Captain America who's made a career out of committing [[Mind Rape]].
=== [[Literature]] ===
* Dr. Hilarius in Thomas Pynchon's ''The Crying Of Lot 49''. Prescribes and takes massive doses of LSD. Has other issues as well.
* [[Silence of the Lambs|Hannibal Lecter]] almost goes without saying.
Line 29:
* Doctor Gordon in ''[[The Bell Jar]]'', who behaves indifferent and cold to Esther in her therapy sessions and ultimately botches electroshock therapy, giving her a traumatic fear of the procedure. Based on the author's real-life experiences.
* Dr Myra Lark in "You Don't Have To Be Mad..." and other Diogenes Club stories by [[Kim Newman]]. Described in the character sheet of ''Secret Files of the Diogenes Club'' as more interested in the ''uses'' of the mentally disturbed than in curing them. Also her superior in "You Don't Have To Be Mad..." [[Meaningful Name|Dr I. M. Ballance]].
* Dr. Lewis Yealland from ''[[The Regeneration Trilogy]]'' considers his [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|shell shocked patients]] [[Lack of Empathy|"degenerates whose inherent weaknesses would have lead them to break down in civilian life anyway"]] and uses electroshock therapy to break them and doesn't care whether or not they break down again or kill themselves.
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* In ''[[Dexter]]'' Dr. Emmett Meridian is a psychiatrist who subtly manipulates his patients, all women, and convinces them to kill themselves. Of course, Dexter signs up for a session with him to get closer and finds himself revealing more about himself than he initially intended.
* The unsub in the ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' episode "Scared To Death", who murders his patients using their worst fears.
Line 45:
* Dev Cvetic in the opening series of ''[[ER]]'', suffering from his own issues, becomes more and more reckless and cavalier with each episode before Susie finds him dictating his own issues into a tape recorder.
=== [[Music]] ===
* The title character from "Dr. Jerome, Love Tub Doctor" by [[The Bogmen]], who uses psychotherapy, hypnosis and a hot-tub to seduce patients.
=== [[Theatre]] ===
* Dr. Rook, the jailhouse shrink in ''[[One Touch of Venus]]'', is not as harmful as the police lieutenant wants him to be, but still somewhat hostile and a little insane.
{{quote|'''Rodney''': I'm not the loony one--you are!
'''Rook''': That's what they all say. }}
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* One of the main villains in ''[[
* The villain in ''[[
* ''[[Alice: Madness Returns]]'' gives an
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'': The [[Emotion Eater]] Spectra disguised herself as a therapist and deliberately made her student patients more miserable in order to feed off their negative emotions.
* ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'' saw a therapist at least twice — both turned out to be Quackerjack in disguise, using it as a ploy to mess with his head.
Line 66 ⟶ 67:
== Well-Meaning, But Dopey And Ineffective ==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* In ''[[Loveless]]'' Ritsuka has one of the well-meaning but useless kind.
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* Dr Long in ''[[Watchmen]]''.
* Dr. Harleen Quinzel in ''[[Batman]]''. Tried to cure the Joker of his madness, but failed so spectacularly that she's now as nutty as he is. On the other hand, she once managed to get [[Lobo]] to leave the Earth alone by [[Talking the Monster to Death| talking about his "issues".]] She has also been able to act as a therapist to depressed and overactive children on a whim.
** Let's face it-almost ''every'' doctor who works at [[Bedlam House|Arkham Asylum]] is like this, judging by their success rate with Batman's enemies.
* [[Herr Doktor|Otto von Himbeergeist]] from one ''[[Lucky Luke]]'' album, who tries to cure the Daltons. While his diagnosis is usually right on-spot, he doesn't manage to turn them. And then, he gets the idea that he should've started a career in crime rather than in academics...
=== [[Literature]] ===
* ''[[The Bad Seed]]'' has a non-professional example in Monica Breedlove. A fan of Freudian psychology, she likes to psychoanalyze people for fun; she diagnosed her gardener as a paranoid schizophrenic and herself as [[Brother-Sister Incest|loving]] her brother. Despite how much knowledge she has about psychology and human nature, her arrogance and [[Motor Mouth|constant talking]] blind her from being able to apply it in a real situation, and she is unable to see the [[Enfante Terrible|chaos]] that is going on right under her nose.
* Dr Fairbairn, the psychotherapist
=== [[Film]] ===
* The ''[[Terminator]]'' movies have Dr. Silberman, who considers himself too sane to buy into Sarah's apocalyptic <s>foreknowledge</s> delusions.
* Sophie in ''[[Shortbus]]'' is a "couples counselor" who doesn't like it when people call her a "sex therapist" (who ironically herself, can't have an orgasm).
* Dr. Simms from the third ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street]]'' genuinely wants to help the Elm Street kids, but her refusal to acknowledge the supernatural threat only puts them in worse danger.
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* One served as a kind of "inexpert witness" for ISN in the ''[[Babylon 5]]'' episode "The Illusion of Truth". He seems nice enough, but has no idea what he's talking about (he misidentifies Stockholm Syndrome as "[[Die Hard|Helsinki Syndrome]]") and is being hauled out to provide propaganda against the heroes by what is basically a fascist government's PR wing.
* John Watson's therapist in ''[[Sherlock]]'' is not blatantly idiotic, but doesn't seem all that useful, and believes Watson's shaky hand and psychosomatic limp is because he's haunted by war, {{spoiler|when in fact he misses it.}} However, it should be noted that it's unknown whether she would have been useful if Watson had completed regular therapy rather than meeting Sherlock, possibly making her an unfair addition to this variation of the trope.
** In the third series, after the death of his wife, he sees a different doctor, who's [[The Mole|a different type entirely]].
=== [[Music]] ===
* Fred Freud in the song of the same name by Lee Hazlewood attempts to cure his patients by prescribing classical music.
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* The therapist in ''Phantasmagoria2''. While it's good to see a horror game avert [[There Are No Psychologists]], she's extremely useless around a patient who obviously needs a lot of help working through his issues.
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* Tip from ''[[Skin Horse]]'' is a psychologist. He tends to be a type 2: well-intentioned, but a little too reliant on therapy puppets and self-help books. And he's been known to storm out after insults to his [[Wholesome Crossdresser|fashion sense]].
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* ''[[Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist]]'' was about a psychologist. He was more of the second variety, with occasional flashes of competence.
* In the ''[[Batman]]'' universe, Harley Quinn was a psychiatrist named Dr. Harleen Quinzel at Arkham Asylum before the Joker lured her to a life of crime. She was the well-meaning, dopey type.
** On that note, Dr. Bartholomew of Arkham Asylum genuienlly wants to help as demonstrated in the episode ''Dreams in Darkness''. But he's naive at best...
* [[All Psychology Is Freudian|Dr. Scratchensniff]] of ''[[Animaniacs]]''. A typical dedicated and skilled psychiatrist burdened by three ''very'' atypical subjects.
== Awesome ==
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* Doc Samson in the [[Marvel Universe]].
* [[The Sandman|Death of the Endless]] is the ultimate therapist, as she has to help her charges deal with the most stressful situation of all. This is the whole reason she chooses [[Don't Fear the Reaper| a nonthreatening young-looking, female form.]]
* Ingrid Arkham (wife of Arkham Asylum’s head psychiatrist, Jeremiah Arkham) - was likely the most competent psychiatrist the facility ever had, not to mention the most generous and compassionate. She never believed any of the inmates were irredeemable monsters, a view most Gotham citizens held. Many of the longtime inmates reciprocated this affection, and even the Joker respected her. {{spoiler|This resulted in him and many others - including Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Clayface, and Solomon Grundy - trying to protect her and help deliver her baby when a riot broke out, but sadly, while her baby survived, Ingrid was killed in the melee.}}
=== [[Film]] ===
* In ''[[Analyze This]]'' (and its sequel, ''Analyze That''), [[Billy Crystal]] plays an Awesome Shrink to whom [[Robert De Niro]]'s mob boss character grows too attached.
* In ''[[Good Will Hunting]]'', one of the major characters ([[Robin Williams]]) ''is'' the Shrink.
Line 116 ⟶ 119:
* Dr. Chase Meridian in ''[[Batman Forever]]'', played by [[Nicole Kidman]], is a very rare example of a heroic psychiatrist.
* Dr. Loomis from the ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]]'' movies is awesome in a [[Badass Grandpa|different sense]]. One gets the sense that he would be doing great work in his chosen profession if one of his patients hadn't turned out to be [[Complete Monster|Michael Myers]].
* Dr. Jaquith, [[Claude Rains]]' psychiatrist character in ''[[Now, Voyager]]''.
* Dr. Jack Mickler in ''[[Don Juan Demarco]]''. Compassionate, competent, and knows when to leave well enough alone. Johnny couldn't have found a better replacement father.
=== [[Literature]] ===
* Sigmund Freud himself in ''The Dracula Tapes''.
** And likewise in ''The Seven Per Cent Solution''.
* In the novel ''I Am The Cheese'', the main character spends every other chapter or so relating his life experiences to a psychologist at a sanitarium.
* Doctor Nolan in ''[[The Bell Jar]]'', who builds up a relationship of trust with Esther and ultimately improved her condition enough that she could feel hopeful again. Based on the author's real-life experiences.
* Mr Nutt, polymath genius in ''[[
* Rivers from [[The Regeneration Trilogy]] is tirelessly kind and patient with the [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]] s he helps to come to terms with their war experiences.
** Rivers' friend Henry Head is also suggested to be one of these along with some of the other doctors at Craiglockhart
=== [[Live
* [[Aaron Sorkin]]'s a big fan of shrinks. Adam Arkin played Awesome Shrink Stanley Keyworth in ''[[The West Wing]]'', where he helped Josh overcome the trauma of being shot.
** We can also assume that Abby Jacobs, Dan Rydell's shrink from ''[[Sports Night]]'', was going to continue being awesome if the [[Too Good to Last|show had survived]].
Line 135 ⟶ 138:
* Tony Hill from ''[[Wire in The Blood]]'' is an awesome psychologist. Though most of his screen time is devoted to second guessing criminals, rather than curing people. He's so good one crazy hoodoo doctor was convinced that Tony was a witchdoctor too, and the ending suggests they [[Your Mind Makes It Real|died from hallucinating a swarm of flies suffocating them]]. And sometimes it appears he might not be quite right himself.
* Dr. Sweets on ''[[Bones]]'', and before him Stephen Fry as Dr. "Gordon Gordon" Wyatt. Both are treated as the Ineffectual Shrink at first but ultimately prove to be very helpful.
* Sidney Freedman, a recurring guest character on ''[[
* Bob Hartley in ''[[The Bob Newhart Show]]''.
* Dr. Molly Clock in ''[[Scrubs]]''. Oddly, she's rather quirky herself.
Line 145 ⟶ 148:
* Dr. Lee Rosen of ''[[Alphas]]'', who is also arguably the main character.
=== [[Theatre]] ===
* In the musical ''[[Lady in the Dark]]'', Dr. Alexander Brooks analyzes Liza Elliott's musical [[Dream Sequence
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* Dr. Kauffman in [[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories]]. He may be quite cynical and confrontational at times, but it's all for the patient's own good in the end.
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* Dr. Corrine from ''[[Questionable Content]]''
* Kili, a shaman who is also a therapist, in ''[[The Dragon Doctors]]''.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* Dr. Bliss, the child psychologist who helped Helga in ''[[Hey Arnold!]]''.
* Morty Storkowitz on ''[[Birdz]]'' does a good job in taming Mr. Nuthatch. In the course of [[Short Runners|13 episodes]], Mr. Nuthatch goes from a nervous-wreck coward to being much more confident (though still eccentric). There's even a slight role reversal as Mr. Nuthatch ends up convincing Morty that he shouldn't be afraid to sing.
* In the ''[[Harley Quinn (TV series)|Harley Quinn]]'' series, Harley is shown as ''very'' effective as one before she became a villain, able to bring Poison Ivy out of a near bestial state of rage; possibly, had Harley not gone insane herself, Ivy might have eventually even been cured.
== Multiple types, variable types, etc. ==
=== Advertising ===
* "Sarge" from [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhlWddAXSRA the Geico commercial].
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* All the shrinks in ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'', who range from realistically successful to vaguely psychotic.
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* Dr Jeremiah Arkham in ''[[Batman]]'' started out as a Type 2, before gradually becoming a Type 1. His ancestor Amadeus, who founded [[Bedlam House|the Asylum]], is currently appearing as a Type 2/3 in ''[[Jonah Hex|All-Star Western]]'' but it's a [[Foregone Conclusion]] that he becomes a Type 1, since it's built into the Asylum's history.
=== [[Film]] ===
* In ''[[Annie Hall]]'' there is an amusing [[Split Screen]] scene showing Alvy and Annie at their respective shrinks, who simultaneously ask them how often they make love. Alvy replies, "Oh, hardly ever...two, maybe three times a week." While Annie says, "Oh all the time, at least two or three times a week."
* Neil Gordon from the third ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street]]''. Mostly an Awesome Shrink, but subverts it when he's willing to use drugs (Hypnocil) to aid his patients.
=== [[Literature]] ===
* A major theme in Erica Jong's ''Fear of Flying''.
* Ditto [[Philip Roth]]'s ''[[Portnoy's Complaint|Portnoys Complaint]]''.
* [[P. G. Wodehouse|Sir Roderick Glossop]] is a rather complicated example. Sometimes he would qualify as harmful because of his tendency to see mental illness everywhere and his belief that Bertie should be institutionalized. Of course since this is Wodehouse its [[Played for Laughs]]. Later on he becomes more of a dopey ineffectual shrink specifically in his use of “The Glossop Method” where he gives a patient whatever it is they want (alcohol for instance) in the hopes that they [[You Fail Logic Forever|will get sick of it and therefore cease to be addicted.]] Needless to say it doesn’t work.
=== [[Live
* In the German crime comedy ''[[Dr. Psycho]]'', police psychologist Max Munzel seems like an example of type 2 and is treated as such by his police colleagues and wife, but he is far less incompetent than his personality would suggest.
* ''[[Frasier]]''. Obviously. Both Frasier and Niles tend to oscillate between types two and three.
Line 191 ⟶ 194:
* It's still too early to call, but Archie Hopper in [[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]] seems to skate between Types 2 & 3. Like the rest of the cast, he suffers from a nasty case of identity amnesia and tends to be an [[Extreme Doormat]] when it comes to Regina's abuse...well, until he grew a spine in the fifth episode. Considering he was Jiminy Cricket, it's probably ''not'' a good idea to tell him to violate matters of conscience.
=== [[Newspaper Comics]] ===
* Lucy van Pelt of ''[[Peanuts]]'' can be any of the previous types, but usually the second type. At 5¢ a session you presumably get what you pay for.
* A common gag in ''[[The Far Side]]''. One of the more famous ones is a therapist who puts in one patient's notes, "Just plain NUTS!"
* A very, very common setting for ''New Yorker'' magazine cartoons. One of my favorites shows a guy at home saying to his parakeet, "You came up in therapy today."
=== [[
* Dr. Penelope Young from ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' sits at a nebulous point between types 1 and 2. Her intentions are good, but the experiments she
* For a couple of years in ''[[Dykes to Watch Out For]]'', Mo saw a shrink named Anya whom she adored. Therapy has also been a [[Running Gag]] throughout the strip, referencing how near-obligatory therapy seems to be for lesbians, and Sparrow in particular was a full fledged therapy junkie for about the first 10 years (even showing her entering couple therapy with her girlfriend of three months. There was also a character appearing on the calendars (but not in the strip, aside from her initial appearance in a really early strip) named Cleo Baldshein, a "guerrilla therapist".
* [[Level 30 Psychiatry|Dr. Gardevoir]] serves as the only psychiatrist to a world inhabited by video game characters. She's seen to be calmly dealing with a [[Minecraft|Creeper]] repeatedly exploding but dreads being in the same room as [[Left 4 Dead|Ellis]]. {{spoiler|She also seems to have given herself a [[Split Personality]] when trying self therapy.}}
=== Western Animation ===
* Dr. Hugo Strange acts like a Type 2 in the [[The Alcatraz|Belle Reve supervillain penitentiary]] throughout most of the ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' episode, "Terrors", but at the end, it's revealed that he's been working for the [[Big Bad]] organization "[[Light Is Not Good|The Light]]", and masterminded the nearly successful mass supervillain prison break. [[Xanatos Gambit|He then takes over as warden when it fails, giving The Light control over the largest collection of super-criminals on the planet]].
▲== [[Video Games]] ==
▲* Dr. Penelope Young from [[Batman: Arkham Asylum]] sits at a nebulous point between types 1 and 2. Her intentions are good, but the experiments she performs -- and which [[Fridge Horror]] indicates she ''intends'' to perform, given she thinks that her subjects would ''need' a [[Psycho Serum]] like TITAN to survive them -- are clearly less than benevolent. She is cool-headed and rational, yet her effects at treating or even diagnosing the patients at Arkham are absolutely useless. This is compounded by the fact she has a rather egrerious case of [[Arbitrary Skepticism]], which means she refuses to believe that, say, Killer Croc is a cannibal (despite this being a well-documented aspect of his behavior by the police) or that the Ratcatcher does have a borderline psychic ability to communicate with rats. Admittedly, in this last case, metahumans are a rarity in Gotham, but at least two well-known cases -- Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy -- are not only famous, but actually kept in Arkham. Summing up just how terrible she is at performing even a basic diagnosis; Dr. Young actually comes to the conclusion that Jonathon Crane, aka The Scarecrow, is harmless and would be a great assert to the TITAN project... as a researcher.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Doctor Index]]
▲[[Category:Seize the Day]]
[[Category:Stock Characters]]
[[Category:Occupation Tropes]]
| |||