2/4/10

Larry David - One Sick Puppy - And a Treatment for Schizophrenics

Reposted from 2007 because we are getting visitors from a popular web site that has raised the question of what we think about Larry David...

Without fail every time I watch the Larry David Show on HBO, I say out loud at the conclusion, "That man is one sick puppy." I think his show is a riot - especially the episodes with the neurotic Jewish content.

Now New Yorker reports that psychologists have discovered that his sick comic situations are perfect illustrations for demonstrating to schizophrenics what not to do in social situations. So I am right... but I will keep watching 'cause it's just too funny.

From the article, The Best Medicine: We Are All Larry David
by Jacob Ward

...So Roberts began showing TV clips during therapy sessions. Soon he had narrowed his selections down to one show: television’s purest expression of social dysfunction, “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Roberts considers Larry David to be the perfect proxy for a schizophrenic person. “On his way into his dentist’s office, he holds the door open for a woman, and, as a result, she’s seen first,” he said. “He stews, he fumes, he explodes. He’s breaking the social rules that folks with schizophrenia often break.” He went on, “Or the one where Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen invite Larry and his wife to a concert: the night arrives, they don’t call, Larry assumes they don’t like him, then it turns out he got the date wrong. It’s a classic example of a major social cognitive error—jumping to conclusions—that schizophrenic patients are prone to.” As the patients watched David flub situation after situation, they laughed, and they willingly discussed with Roberts how they might behave in the same circumstances. “That bald man made a mountain out of a molehill!” one woman called out during a session... more  [reposted from 10/22/07]

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