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In her survey of women's films produced by Hollywood between 1930 and 1960, Basinger (1993) identified a remarkably consistent pattern: While female protagonists might be depicted as venturing into the workplace, enjoying the freedom of an unconventional lifestyle, or savoring their independence, by the end of these films they all came to the same conclusion — you can't beat marriage and motherhood. In other words, while traditional sex-role stereotypes were challenged, they were always ultimately restored when the woman realized that only a man could make her complete.
The Hollywood treatment of the female psychotherapist or psychoanalyst is a specific and striking example of this more generalized pattern. In film after film, from The Flame Within and Spellbound to The Man Who Loved Women and Prince of Tides , the female psychotherapist in the movies is depicted as an unfulfilled woman who pursues a career because she cannot find the right man to make her happy (Gabbard, K., and Gabbard, G. O., 1987; Gabbard, G. O., and Gabbard, K., 1989). Moreover, “Mr. Right” always appears in the form of a male patient who helps the female therapist see that she is in much greater need of treatment than he is and that the cure for her condition is to succumb to the dubious charms of the man she is treating.
This scenario is the centerpiece of at least 25 theatrically released American films. While this plot might be assumed to reflect a prefeminist era in the American cinema, the facts are otherwise. In the 1980s six films, Zelig, The Man Who Loved Women, Bedroom Eyes, From Beyond, Hunk, and The Hero and the Terror, feature this type of romantic involvement between female therapist and male patient. Akhough the decade of the 1990s is not even half over, five films, My Blue Heaven, Prince of Tides, Basic Instinct, Hot Shots,