Character Motivation in the Representation of Mental Health Professionals in Recent Movies

 

 

Stephen Dine Young

 

 

In S. Glass (Chair), Analyze This II:  Motivations and Professionalism in Hollywood's Movie Therapists.  Symposium conducted at the 109th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA on August 26, 2001.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Dine Young, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Psychology Department

Hanover College

P.O. Box 890

Hanover, IN 47243

(812) 866-7319

youngst@hanover.edu


Character Motivation in the Representation of Mental Health Professionals in Recent Movies

 

Stephen Dine Young

 

 

This study explores the way in which therapists and other mental health professionals have been portrayed in recent popular movies.  A systematic content analysis is used to determine the motivating factors behind the professional behavior of characters who are identified as mental health practitioners.  The top 20 box-office grossing films of each year from 1990 to 1999 were reviewed in order to identify characters who were mental health professionals and who had a significant role in the film.  Twenty-seven such characters in nineteen different films were identified.  These characters where then evaluated using a coding scheme that includes categories for character motivation as well as other categories such as release date of movie, genre of movie, age of character, gender of character, race of character, professional affiliation of character, and primary professional activity of character.

Six different motivational categories were advanced: 1) power; 2) love/lust; 3) money; 4) curiosity; 5) concern for self; and 6) concern for others.  AConcern for others@ and Apower@ were found to be the most common motivators in the sample of characters.  Implications of these findings are considered.  In particular, the motivational categories are conceptualized as representing archetypal and cultural Afantasies@ about the nature of mental health treatment.  The possibility of distortions that can arise from the cinematic representation of these portrayals, as well as insight/realities suggested by the portrayals, are discussed.

 

 

 


 

 

Movies (1990-1999) with Mental Health Professionals as Significant Characters

 

                                Film           # Chars.   Year Genre

 

Awakenings

3

1991

Drama

What About Bob?

1

1991

Comedy

Silence of the Lambs

4

1991

Drama

Hot Shots

1

1991

Comedy

Terminator 2

1

1991

Action

Basic Instinct

1

1992

Drama

Sleepless in Seattle

1

1993

Comedy

The Santa Clause

1

1994

Comedy

Star Trek: First Contact

1

1994

Action

Nine Months

1

1995

Comedy

Batman Forever

1

1995

Action

Casper

1

1995

Comedy

Star Trek: Generations

1

1996

Action

Twister

1

1996

Action

Conspiracy Theory

1

1997

Action

Good Will Hunting

1

1998

Drama

Analyze This

1

1999

Comedy

The Sixth Sense

1

1999

Drama

The General's Daughter

4

1999

Drama

 


Motivational Categories

 

1. Power: Power is broadly defined as any indication that a character is engaging in the mental health profession in order to exert control, dominance or authority over other characters. 

Clip:  The Silence of the Lambs

 

2. Love/Lust: In these portrayals, characters actively or passively use their professional status to pursue a romantic or sexual relationship with some other character, most often a client.

Clip:  Basic Instinct

 

3. Money: Characters are portrayed as basing their professional actions on the desire to receive monetary reward. 

Clip:  What About Bob?

 

4. Curiosity: These characters a represented as being innately fascinated by the nature of the human mind/behavior

Clip:  Awakenings

 

5. Concern for Self: These portrayals are those in which the character is identified as being damaged/deficient in some way and appears to be using the therapeutic/professional process to correct this deficiency.

Clip:  Good Will Hunting

 

6. Concern for Others: These characters are motivated by an altruistic desire to bring psychological balance/well-being/healing to some or all of the other characters they interact with professionally.

Clip:  The Sixth Sense


Frequency of Primary and Secondary Motivators

 

 

 

Motivator                                Frequency

Money                             5

Power                             11

Love/Lust                        5

Curiosity                         4

Concern for Others              16

Concern for Self          8

 

Note:  Frequency indicates number of times motivator coded as primary or secondary among 27 significant mental health professional characters.

 

 

 

 


 

Reflections on Motivational Categories

 

1. Power

Distortions:

--Mental health professionals have a special, almost magical power over people

Insights/Realities:

--Mental health treatment is institutionally sanctioned

--Struggle of young professionals regarding the limits of their authority/responsibility

 

2. Love/Lust

Distortions:

--Love/Sex is a treatment for mental health problems

Insights/Realities:

--Sexual motivation central to psychoanalytic theory

--Therapy is a particularly intimate experience

--Proper handling of  romantic feelings for clients part of training

 

3. Money

Distortions:

--Mental health professionals are quacks, only in it for the money

Insights/Realities:

--Psychology is indeed a profession

--Battles arise over proper role of money in treatment (e.g., brief therapy)


Reflections on Motivational Categories (Cont.)

 

4. Curiosity

Distortions:

--Mental health professionals are morbid voyeurs

Insights/Realities:

--Intellectual curiosity is important, particularly for an academic psychologist

--Field is concerned about how Apatients@ or Asubjects@ are treated

 

5. Concern for Self

Distortions:

--Healers who are sicker than their clients

Insight/Realities:

--Real professionals are flawed

--Successful professionals eventually find a way work with personal struggles

 

6. Concern for Others

Distortions:

--Saintly, selfless therapists saving humanity

Insight/Realities:

AI want to help people@ may be a necessary requirement for the field

--Good evidence that mental health treatment is helpful