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10.03.03
Radio
Times reveals the TV shows that have become the latest form of therapy
What
do Kilroy, Sex in the City and Faking It all have in common? These
are just some of the television programmes experts say help British
viewers deal with difficulties and conflicts in their everyday lives.
This week's Radio Times asks a group of leading psychologists to
examine the shows they believe offer a valuable source of information
and emotional support for their audiences. What Not To Wear, My
Family and even The Simpsons also make the list.
"There's
too much attention paid to how TV can be bad for you, but I think
it's good for us more often that it's bad," says Professor
Barrie Gunter of Sheffield University, a psychologist specialising
in the media's effects on audiences. He cites Faking It, a show
that sees ordinary people try to pass themselves off as something
completely the opposite of what they are, as a perfect example."
This goes beyond entertainment and serves as a real inspiration,"
he says. "It shows that anybody can do anything if they put
their mind to it."
Dr
Petra Boynton, sex psychologist at University College, London, and
an agony aunt on a website for teenage girls, prescribes Sex and
the City as another example of therapy TV. "If I had my way,
episodes of Sex and the City would be shown in schools as part of
sex-education lessons," she tells Radio Times. "Watching
a few episodes would show them that sex isn't some grim and impersonal
transaction, but something to be shared between two people that
can have some comic moments."
Even
US cartoon comedy The Simpsons makes the list. Although they may
not be the perfect family, David Spellman, clinical psychologist
and family therapist in Burnley, insists they are a unit. "The
fact is," he tells Radio Times, "that there are far more
Simpsons families than there are Waltons, and that's what makes
the show so popular. I find it very touching how Homer is by no
means the perfect Dad, but that doesn't make him any less loved
by his family. It reassures us to see someone loved, warts and all."
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