Mental TV

I will never forget that night in the lab. Working with some rats, I'd conditioned one named Bradley to be clumsy and physically inept. Each time I placed him in a cage with the other rats, he'd inadvertently spill water, trip another rat, or otherwise make life difficult for another member of the rat pack. But each time, the injured rat, knowing that Bradley's actions were unintentional, did nothing to retaliate. Why, I wondered. What was the key?

Distractedly, I turned on the television. A commercial ended and an episode of Gilligan's Island resumed. The professor had just pieced together yet another makeshift radio that was receiving transmissions. I laughed because I knew what was coming. Sure enough, Gilligan unintentionally destroyed the radio, and the other castaways did nothing. I mumbled out loud, "Why, the professor would probably like to kill him!" At that exact moment, I heard a disturbance coming from the direction of the rats, Bradley had just spilled water on one of his cage mates. As usual, the soaked rat didn't attack but simply screeched at him, just as the professor didn't attack Gilligan.

In a flash it all became clear. Gilligan's Island is about the repressed rage we feel toward those inept self-defeating fools around us. We all encounter Gilligans who trip us up in life. We, too, hold down our anger, allowing it to tear at us inside. I realized that we all have both a Gilligan and a Skipper within us. The Gilligan Within is that part of Us that gets in other people's way Have you ever been late to pick someone up and thus caused a problem for them? Of course you have; we're all guilty of these little blunders. Whenever you make a mistake that impedes another person or that causes someone to lose an opportunity, your Inner Gilligan has risen. Like Gilligan, who never consciously set out to destroy the lives of six other people, we've all been the cause of another's missed opportunities. All of the castaways, but in particular the Skipper, must repress their impulse to retaliate against Gilligan. Whenever you're struggling with feelings of retaliation against someone whose Inner Gilligan has interrupted your life, it's your Inner Skipper that's rising.

Because of analyses like these, teletherapists are constantly being asked what other classic television programs have been psychologically misunderstood. Here are some of the other shows that, rerun after rerun, are repeatedly misinterpreted.

THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW

This show demonstrates a series of personality splits that we all can relate to at an unconscious level. Tolerating ambivalence, the mixture of good and bad feelings, is a later developmental skill. It's a maturational ability that some never completely master. The personalities on The Dick Van Dyke Show play off these split personality types. For instance, Alan Brady and Mel Cooley are the two sides of paternal authority Alan is irascible and aggressive; frightening as an authority figure. Mel is weak, ineffective, and comical as an authority figure. This is how children view their fathers, alternating between weak and powerful. Sally and Laura are the two sides of woman/mother. Laura is weak and dependent and sexually receptive; Sally is strong and independent, a caretaker who is sexually aggressive. Buddy is the other side of Rob. Rob is superego-driven, warm, and connecting; Buddy is self-absorbed, driven, and aggressive. Rob fantasizes about being like Buddy; Buddy in his alone times desires to be like Rob.