Doctor Fanny Jacq, psychiatrist and director of the mental health section at Qare, deciphers the Arte series “En Thérapie”.
Why doctor – The Arte series has become in less than six weeks the most watched program in the history ofArte.tv, peaking at over 35 million views. Is Doctor Dayan a real doctor? What is his specialty?
Fanny Jacq – Doctor Dayan has two specialties: he is both a psychiatrist – we can see him prescribing medication in one of the episodes – and a psychoanalyst. He was trained for this and followed a psychoanalysis himself, supervised by another psychoanalyst.
In general, it is common for mental health professionals to have several specialties (psychiatrist and addictologist, or psychiatrist and sexologist, for example, etc.)
– Is therapy really more effective if you lie on the couch?
In the context of psychoanalysis, the practitioner does not consult face to face: the patient is lying on a couch for more comfort, but above all so as not to feel the gaze of the therapist who may be perceived as “judging”. This practice allows for freer and more spontaneous speech.
But in fact, there are a multitude of practices among shrinks, and many professionals consult face to face, in particular psychiatrists and psychologists. In the series, it is above all the television aspect which played in the position of the characters, according to the creators of the series.
Today, teleconsultation therapy is also developing, mainly since the first confinement in March 2020.
– Do the shrinks deliver as many conclusions and interpretations in the session as in the series?
It really depends mainly on the type of therapy, but the series is a kind of summary of what happens during the sessions. Normally, it takes many more consultations for the therapist to make a diagnosis or interpretations.
– Is it true that the price of consultations varies according to the patients?
This statement is true only in the case of psychoanalysis: the psychoanalyst can adapt the price of the consultations according to the means of the patient, his age, his problem…
For other types of therapy, in particular with a psychiatrist, the price of a consultation is fixed. The consultation or teleconsultation of psychiatrists is covered by the Health Insurance.
In the series, we see that Dr. Dayan’s patients do not pay for each session, but this is not something that is commonly practiced. It’s even quite rare!
– Is psychoanalysis accessible to everyone?
The series forces the line and takes up a few clichés: the couch, the Parisian psychoanalyst who consults in a bourgeois apartment in the center of Paris… But the series also shows a diversity of patients, of different social origins and ages.
Psychoanalytic practice and psychiatric consultation in general is very open to different profiles. Consulting a mental health professional is not reserved for an elite: the important thing is to find the right practitioner, the one who will meet their expectations and needs.
– Would you recommend the series “In Therapy” ?
The series is finally quite faithful to the reality of a practice in which speech plays a central role. Moreover, the creators of the series paid particular attention to the dialogues and worked with a psychoanalyst as a consultant.
It helps to understand some key principles of psychotherapy: the unconscious, repression, transference, impulses… and is therefore educational enough to understand the springs of the human psyche.
– How to explain that the series meets such a success?
– The post-attack trauma echoes, to a lesser extent, the trauma of the pandemic (which caused a “stun effect”). Everyone remembers what he was doing on the evening of the Bataclan, and we will all have the memory of the confinements.
– The viewer enters into empathy with the characters. But empathy is an emotion feel good which promotes behaviors of mutual aid, sharing and cooperation. We really need it right now!
– The viewer lives the experience of psychoanalysis by proxy. He recognizes his own failings/difficulties, or those of others. He interprets the silences and the unspoken, the looks of the actors… A bit like when you watch a thriller and you can’t help but play private detective.
– It’s a series that brings hope: you can heal, even from serious trauma, thanks to therapy! Going to consult should no longer be a taboo. This is one of the messages we carry at Qare, in order to destigmatize mental health (#jassumelapsy).
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