Skip to main content

Why you Should not Go Biking with your Therapist: Dear Zindagi

 Disha Sheth 

‘Dear Zindagi’ is a movie centred around the life of the protagonist, Kaira and how by focusing on her mental health. Through the process of therapy she is able to overcome her obstacles and start living a happier life. However there are many factual inaccuracies in the relationship between Kaira and her therapist.  The aim of this blog post would be to highlight the accurate and inaccurate perceptions of the client-therapist relationship that have been portrayed in the movie.


An objective of a good therapist is to ensure that the client is comfortable. This aids the diagnosis and treatment process. The therapist in this film achieves this by building a good rapport with the client when she first came in through the use of humour which caused her tensed demeanour to immediately relax. He told her that she could stand or sit as long as it suited her during the session, which further increased her comfort levels and helped strengthen the rapport between them. He was also very non-judgemental while he was listening to her. Thus by creating an atmosphere of no judgement, her comfort levels increased and she was able to open up more freely.


However, as is the case with several Bollywood movies, dramatization has led to multiple distortions and inaccuracies in the movie. This is particular in the case of client-therapist relationships. However, over here those boundaries seem to blur as we see the therapist and the client running along the beach, chasing waves or even cycling together as part of the ‘therapy session.’ According to professionals, therapy needs to be conducted in a professional setting and not ‘exotic places’(Lott, 1999). During the session on the beach when the client asked the therapist if sessions on the beach are against the rules, the therapist responded that some rules should be broken. Rules in therapy exist as part of the clinical procedure, and therefore must be adhered to. By making this statement it gives off the impression that it is acceptable to break the rules of therapy. Another inaccurate perception that the beach scene gives off is that your therapist is somewhat of a ‘friend’ to you. This violates the professional boundary that is supposed to exist between the therapist and the client. If it is absent, it could lead to the client developing a dependency towards their therapist. 
The therapist often gives his client his anecdotes and advice which often is the decision she should make regarding her problems. In reality, this is not encouraged because it would cause the clients to become dependent on their therapist where as the aim of therapy is to enable clients to make their own decisions and be independent. He also does not let her talk much in the process. This presents the inaccurate perception that your therapist will solve all your problems for you and always advise you. Following this method could hinder the client’s own decision making abilities.
Another part where the boundary between personal and professional seemed to blur is when the therapist randomly cancels the session for the week and in the next session claims that it is their last session. According to professionals,(Lott, 1999) the client should be able to depend on a certain time of the week for their session. In this case, the client wasn’t informed of this at all, and neither were they informed that it would be their last session until the session itself took place. Over here the movie strongly hints that the therapist did this because of their developing personal feelings towards the client and not for professional reasons. Again, this gives the inaccurate perception that there will be some sort of personal relationship between a therapist and a client. 
Thus the movie ‘Dear Zindagi’ creates perceptions about client-therapist relationships to the public. However these perceptions are negative, which show the blurring of boundaries and personal rather than professional motives. Such a depiction could give the wrong societal implications about the concept of therapy. Nonetheless, the accurate perceptions of therapy, especially trying to destigmatize the incorrect notions behind it would also reduce the general fear that society has about wanting to get therapy. 
Bibliography 
Lott, D. (1999). Drawing Boundaries. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/199905/drawing-boundaries [Accessed 25 Sep. 2019].

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PTSD and its relationship with defense mechanisms and empathy: Character analysis of Levi Ackerman (SnK)

|Indira Bulhan Blog post: 1 “Manga is for kids” (My ignorant friend, 2018). Manga is often treated by people as something which is not so serious. However, it holds within itself some dark aspects of humanity. One such example is Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan). In it, the character of Levi Ackerman has been through a series of events which sets him apart from the people around him. Through this blog post, I will look upon the nature of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its relationship with defense mechanisms and empathy.     Levi’s past is filled with events which can act as strong stressors for the development of trauma: the death of his mother at an early age, abandonment by father, raised by his uncle in the underworld in a highly unhygienic and malnourished state (who later abandons him again), death of his two closest friends and lover. Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD can be defined as a mental disorder which can happen to peopl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is Patrick Jane a psychopath?

Under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Psychopathy was never recognized, until the revised DSM-5 categorized it under Anti-Social Personality Disorder. “He will choose you, disarm you with his words, and control you with his presence” (Hare)  Psychopaths can replicate the behavior which the person they are interacting with thinks they want from them, without feeling a thing, which contributes greatly to their ability to manipulate. Psychopaths charm and lie their way seamlessly to the top, and while they lack empathy, they are well-liked because they know what to say and when to say it. Psychopaths occupy most of the positions of power in our society and corporations and thus often end up being glorified. This glorification of psychopaths is most evident in the portrayal of psychopathy in TV shows. Some of the most notable characters which the screen has ever seen, like Marlo Stanfield from ‘The Wire’, James Moriarty from ‘Sherlock’, Hanni...
Post a Comment
Read more

Patrick Bateman: A Successful Psychopath

Abigail D'Souza Personality disorders are psychological disorders characterised by rigid and pervasive patterns of behaviour that persist over time. These must be maladaptive, or cause clinically significant distress to the individual, and are typically recognizable by late adolescence, or early adulthood. The most commonly known personality disorder is Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), or rather Psychopathy, since people often assume the two are synonymous. They aren’t.   ASPD belongs to the Cluster B group of personality disorders, along with Histrionic, Narcissistic, and Borderline personality disorders. Individuals with these tend to be dramatic, emotional, and erratic (Hooley et al., 2021). ASPD is characterised by a lack of moral or ethical development; inability to follow approved models of behaviour; deceitfulness; manipulation of others; history of conduct problems as a child, etc. (Hooley et al., 2021). Psychopathy however, is more a set of traits, like superfi...
Post a Comment
Read more