THE COVID MONTHS | WHAT ABOUT BOB?

Mark Hammond takes a look at the retro 1991 film, What about Bob? and what it has to say about therapy.

Since reading Lorraine Bracco’s (Dr. Jennifer Melfi in The Sopranos) comment in a recent Men’s Health article that many men accessed therapy because of Tony Soprano, I’ve been thinking about the impact such portrayals have on the wider culture.  What men saw in the fictional account of Tony Soprano and Dr. Melfi has had quite the influence and in fact, thinking about it more I realised that in some ways Robin Williams as counsellor Sean Maguire in the movie Good Will Hunting shaped a lot of my own perceptions some 20 years ago.  Right now we not only have film and television to look to for representations of mental health, but also the Internet and social media.  Instagram accounts such as Marcela Sabia promote a more positive relationship with mental health; Twitter accounts such as The Mental Elf shares various resources and information from conferences.  There are countless mental health podcasts too, from Metro’s Mentally Yours to celebrity-hosted shows such as Frankie Bridge’s Open Mind,

In this article I will be looking at a film from 1991 called What About Bob?  The movie is about a  careerist Psychoanalyst who inherits a client called Bob from another practice.  Across 90 minutes the movie shows the relationship between an aloof professional with no empathy for his multi-phobic client and hints at some deep-seated cynicism about the world of Psychoanalysis.   

Following this I will be reflecting upon a podcast called The Naked Professors, a show hosted by two men who claim to ‘represent the new breed of masculinity.’  Each will hopefully prove fecund ground for this contemplation of mental health presentations in the media landscape and how they affect the broader culture.

What About Bob?

The Frank Oz-directed What About Bob? starring Bill Murray as Bob and Richard Dreyfus as his reluctant therapist, Dr Leo Marvin presents as a comedy on the surface but as it develops we see that its writers may or may not have a lot of negative things to say about Psychotherapy.

In the opening scene Dr Marvin receives a call from a jittery colleague who informs him that he is ‘passing on’ a client named Bob.  Marvin’s initial misgivings are assuaged when he learns that this client ‘shows up on time and pays early’.  The caller then fawns over Dr Marvin’s recently published book and, appealing to a fragile ego, succeeds in passing Bob on.  And that’s all it takes to refer a client in this fictional world; The referring Psychotherapist is so selfish that he can pinball a client around when it suits and the Psychotherapist answering is so self-obsessed that a little flattery (and the promise of prompt payment and punctuality) is all it takes for him to agree.  Message one in this portrayal, Psychotherapists are self-absorbed and egotistical and care not a jot for their clients.

Bob, who has germaphobia, arrives at Dr Marvin’s office having negotiated his way through the building’s door handles and elevator buttons.  With one therapist abandoning him, the viewer is now shown something of his disposition with a typical Hollywood trope of germaphobia as Bob swaddles the door handles in a handkerchief so that he can touch them.

Tropes and clichés abound in Dr Marvin’s depiction.  Dr Marvin has a bronze bust of Freud. As Bob scans the Dr Marvin’s family photos we learn that his children are named Sigmund and Anna.  Do therapist display their family photos in their office and then immediately reveals personal details?  And what therapist receives a patient with zero referral information and zero preparation and then informs said patient. The black comedy continues as Dr Marvin tells Bob that he is leaving on holiday. The viewer is invited to feel sorry for Bob and disgust at Dr Marvin who gives him a copy of his own book as a transitional object.  He promptly instructs his secretary to bill Bob not only for the session but for the book, too. 

The screenwriters are making some powerful points about their perceived negative underbelly of the profession. Presented as a comedy What About Bob? plays like a revenge film showcasing a pompous, Narcissistic therapist. Dr Marvin is interested only in himself, his book and an appearance he goes on to make on national television. As a therapist he grudgingly offers glib advice to Bob which Bob then takes to heart - and he starts to enjoy much success from these reductive instructions.  One is for Bob to take ‘baby steps’. Bob’s agoraphobia (this is Hollywood; he is a package of every phobia) dissolves into playfulness and he begins to try new things and open to the world.  His amazement at the efficacy of this ‘technique’ translates to the viewer as sarcasm from the pen of the writers.  It also shows that the film believes therapy primarily involves the giving of advice, which is a perception that I think has sustained in many regards.

Whilst Dr Marvin sinks into febrile frustration with Bob when he shows up at his holiday home, Bob flourishes with every bit of ‘wisdom’ that Marvin offers him at him. In one scene Bob teaches young Siggy Marvin to dive simply showing how its done - an empowerment technique at odds with Dr. Marvin’s tack of bullying approach to his son’s diving lessons.  The message seems to be that Bob, the regular guy is more relatable and down to earth.  Dr Marvin can’t teach his own son because he is unempathic, self- involved and not able to relate, even to his own child.

Bob is used as a mirror for Dr Marvin’s rigidity and arrogance. Bob starts out as a scared baby. By taking Dr. Marvin’s book ‘Baby Steps’ literally, he learns toto explore and separate from his apparent ‘caregiver’, attracting the admiration of Dr Marvin’s family. Conversely, Dr Marvin slides into abject opprobrium with everyone except Bob himself.  Here, the therapist is only ever viewed through a glass, darkly.  The message of the film is loud and clear ‘Therapist, heal thyself!’