In Treatment is now available to buy on DVD
Watching television and films can fill us with emotions, insight and inspiration and a new survey has revealed that 39 per cent of Britons would turn to a TV programme to help solve issues in their own lives.
The research was carried out to mark the release of In Treatment Series Two, out on DVD now, it found that TV is quickly becoming a key source of at-home therapy.
I caught up with Andrea Sabbadini, world renowned psychologist, to see what he thought of the results of the research.
What do you think of the results of the recent survey that 39 per cent of Britons would turn to TV to help solve their own issues?
What I find a little confusing about it, is the fact that a programme about psychotherapy like In Treatment, is not considered to be a programme about psychotherapy but a therapeutic one. A programme that people watch in order to deal with their own problems.
Watching other people deal with their problems can help people learn something about ones soul. I imagine that many viewers identify with the characters, especially the patients and are therefore through the problems of the patients in the programme they will also find some sort of resolution for their own problems, or so they believe. Because it seems to me what is essential psychotherapeutic work is the relationship the patient has with the doctor, for the therapeutic work to actually take place. But what they see on screen is a fictional one that they have with the client.
Watching films and television can be normal, but my point is that we have to make the distinction between the real and the therapeutic sessions that the client would have with the therapist.
Why do you think that more women than men find TV and film a suitable coping mechanism?
Maybe they have more trust in the whole process of being listened to than men do, that is a possibility.
It is also true that there are more women are in therapy. There are also more women psychotherapists than men and certainly many more women child psychotherapists, who work with the children. And there are more women training to become psychotherapists. The reason for that can be very complex. But maybe it is to with with women and their physical and anotomical reasons, maybe they're more inclined to take the role of the this.
The research also found that 71 per cent of 18-34 year olds have never visited a councillor, yet more than half say they would feel it to be beneficial - why do you think that they haven't?
I don't know, I suspect that they might be somewhat suspicious, they think that it's helpful but at the same time they might be afraid to open up a bit of, you know, a Pandora's Box, if they start talking about their problems all sorts of things could come out which they may not be able to control. Then it would be only those who actually suffering and desperate to seek help that allow them to overcome the resistance they felt talking to a stranger, a professional stranger who should be trusted.
Like you said, 71 per cent have never been to see a therapist, yet that still means that there is 29 per cent who do. Which is one in three more or less. It's less than 71 per cent, but it's still quite a lot of people.
I think there is still a stigma in society about going to see a councillor, therapist or a psychoanalyst that there is something very wrong with you. I think that there is nothing more wrong than that, I would be much more concerned about someone who has a problem and does nothing to accept it and then if they were to accept it, does nothing to solve it. We should celebrate the people who acknowledge and accept their problems and do something about it by seeing a therapist. I think that those who watch the programme In Treatment, like myself, there is certain things that doctors, therapists and patients should be congratulated for the courage that they have. Their own abilities, their own focus, their own soul.
In Treatment, Season 2 is out now on DVD courtesy of HBO Home Entertainment.
Taryn Davies