Soaps and therapists

[DRW50]

A while back I watched some clips of Andy Norris's arrest on GL, and Mike Bauer kept reassuring people that Andy would get professional help, that he was somehow broken along the way, and therapy would make him better.

That was Doug Marland, and he continued this on ATWT, as various psychos like Douglas Cummings and Laura the psycho babysitter were written as being damaged by their backgrounds and various characters telling us that if only so and so had received professional help. Frannie even did a lot of work helping people because she said she wasn't able to help Douglas. He also had various characters regularly attend counseling session for a variety of problems.

Agnes Nixon also focused heavily on therapists and counseling in her OLTL run and for a long time on AMC (Dr. Tolan, played by Courtney Simon, who also played Dr. Michaels on ATWT).

In the past ten or fifteen years soaps have moved away from the idea of treating characters for mental problems, and either their problems are dealt with offcamera, or the psychiatrist turns out to be a lunatic.

What do you think caused the shift? Is it some underlying change in how society viewers psychiatrists, or is it that executives began to believe this was boring and that people would only want to see generic psychos?

[Soapsuds]

How would you like Lynn Michaels as your therapist?? She got worse as the years went on. Once Marland left she didnt have a chance! Everyone dupped her....LOL

[marceline]

I blame the move from character-based writing to plot-based writing. If the only reason Character X goes crazy is to provide a big hostage situation during sweeps or to kill off somebody else's character, then who cares if they get help or not. It'll all be forgotten next sweeps.

[Khan]

What marceline said, lol.

Psychology can be a fascinating subject, and I, for one, always enjoyed seeing various characters work out their problems constructively with a trained professional.

[marceline]

ITA but I can't tell you how many times I've seen posts from people saying "I don't want to see a bunch of boring scenes of characters talking about their feelings." Personally, I like those scenes but a lot of people want to see fistfights, car crashes and hookups and action is much easier to write.

Plus psychiatry requires looking at history. After a character has been retconned, recast and sorased a couple of times, history becomes meaningless. It's hard to address something that happened during a character's teen years when they didn't have any.

[DRW50]

I agree. And people talking about their feelings are what soaps were built on! The further we move away from that the lower the ratings go.

[Ann_SS]

LOL! I liked Lynn's therapy sessions with Josh who was one of my favorite characters. However, i couldn't stand to hear Iva whining constantly about her issues to Lynn and everyone else in town.

[Khan]

Then (no offense) what the hell are these people doing watching soaps, lol?

Seriously, that (the emphasis on spectacle over character-driven drama) has virtually killed daytime.

[NorrthCafe]

Dr. Phil makes my skin crawl, but a Dr. Phil-like therapist on soaps would be fantastic. I'd love to see the interesting piece of the patient-therapist dynamic come from the therapists' side. Imagine OLTL's Todd thinking he's playing his therapist and the therapists rips his hide every time until Todd has no choice but to open up and be 'real'.

I honestly don't think any therapist has been smart since Marlena's possession (94 -95), which basically fits your assertion that for the last 15 years or so, there hasn't been a focus on restorative mental health. Since then, they've all been a bit of a joke (BnB's Sheila's therapist, Tim or ATWT's Lynn Michaels) or a fraud (OLTL/GH/AMC's Rae Cummings), or dumb as dirt (again, BnB only this time that distinction goes to taylor hayes jones). Since Marlena's possession, therapists seem to have become as wacked as the people they're supposed to help.

[SFK]

I thought Viki's scenes with Nora's sister, Dr. Sussanah Hanen (say it out loud) were really good, like a play, A Far Country or something. They were paced well and here a therapist did exactly what they should do best on a soap, support the character who is unraveling whatever they've got going on. These scenes are so intense because the therapist doesn't have the emotional investment quite like a relative would so it's like they're goading the subject on in an almost rough and impersonal way that really builds tension and drives the scene.

[SFK]

I can't help but think of that quack Dr. Damon Lazarre with that shiny jeweled hatpin/paperweight thing he'd use on Noelle/Silver. Anyone remember that? He was hypnotizing her to kill Erica.

[DRW50]

Yeah, you're right, SFK. Those scenes were crucial to the story. Without them MPD/DID just becomes ridiculous ham.

Didn't someone say that Susannah was supposed to return for Jessica's 2008 DID story, but then the plan was scrapped? And what did we get with that story? A shameful, campy, disgusting mess which permanently damaged a number of characters.

[SFK]

(Khan, I know you remember.)

[SFK]

They can say that DID's proven to be somewhat hereditary all they want, but I think giving it to Jessica was just the lowest of the low. I did think that Niki taking Jessica out was actually kind of an interesting bit of retcon, but taking it to the next level of abuse... okay, *maybe* I could accept her being grabbed and taken to another room before Niki stopped it all, but the full-fledged video camera and subsequent DID, ugh, just too much, and what a cheap ripoff of what I thought was an awesome story.

[Khan]

Unfortunately, I do, lol. Damon Lazarre had been in cahoots with Goldie Kane to eliminate Erica, so that Silver would inherit Eric's estate. The entire (hot) mess culminated in a confrontation on some bridge, I think, with Damon going over to his death.

Yeah, not one of AMC's finest moments, lol.