Bad Therapists Make Good TV. But at What Cost?

Source: The Free Press

The Free Press, founded by Bari Weiss in 2021, is rated Lean Right by AllSides and Right-Center with Mixed factual reporting by Media Bias/Fact Check, praised for well-sourced articles and no failed fact checks in the last five years but criticized for one-sided coverage on transgender issues and other topics. It grew to over 136,000 paid subscribers generating at least $10 million annually before its October 2025 acquisition by Paramount Skydance for $150 million. While self-described as independent and focused on underreported stories, it has faced criticisms from outlets like The Guardian for pro-Israel bias and suppressing progressive views on Gaza.

Source: Ike Herschkopf

Ike Herschkopf is a disgraced former psychiatrist whose New York medical license was revoked in 2021 after official findings of severe professional misconduct, including exploitation of vulnerable patients for personal gain. Any claims of expertise from him lack credibility due to documented boundary violations and regulatory sanctions that ended his ability to practice. No evidence was found of him functioning as a media source or author; he is primarily known as the subject of investigative journalism and entertainment (e.g., Apple TV+ series).

Source: Joe Nocera

Joe Nocera is a veteran business journalist with over four decades at outlets including The New York Times, Bloomberg Opinion, and The Free Press, earning three Gerald Loeb Awards, three John Hancock Awards, a Helen Bernstein Award, a PEN America ESPN Award, and a 2007 Pulitzer finalist nod for commentary. His work has faced targeted criticisms, such as NCAA rebuttals to his athlete exploitation claims and NYT corrections on a 2010 column noted by FAIR.org, but no pattern of systemic fact-checking failures from neutral verifiers like PolitiFact or Snopes. As an opinion columnist, he transparently advances viewpoints on business, policy, and sports, bolstered by his investigative podcast The Shrink Next Door.

Source: Paul Appelbaum

Paul S. Appelbaum is a highly credentialed academic psychiatrist with over four decades in the field, holding endowed professorships at major institutions like Columbia and UMass, and leadership in key professional bodies focused on ethics and law. His empirical research on topics like informed consent and risk assessment has shaped policy and practice, evidenced by multiple awards from APA and AAPL, and MacArthur Foundation involvement. No documented retractions, ethical violations, or professional sanctions were identified in searches.

Source: Glen Gabbard

Glen O. Gabbard, MD (born 1949), is a leading American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with over 50 years in the field, serving as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and a training/supervising analyst at the Houston Center for Psychoanalytic Studies. He has authored/edited 29 books, including standard texts like *Psychodynamic Psychiatry in Clinical Practice*, and over 360 publications, with editorial roles such as Joint Editor-in-Chief of the *International Journal of Psychoanalysis*. His credibility is bolstered by prestigious awards like the American Psychiatric Association's Adolf Meyer Award (2004) and the Sigourney Award (2000).

Missing Context

Shrinking co-creator Bill Lawrence stated in a March 2023 LA Times interview that the team interviewed over 100 therapists, explicitly knows the depicted behaviors are unethical, and planned consequences for characters (shown in Season 2).

This shows the show is intentional satire aware of ethics, not naive glamorization, softening the article's claim of irresponsible misleading.

Factual Error

Presents "Jimmy Laird" anecdote as a real therapist who crossed boundaries after watching Shrinking and got fired/complaints, implying direct causation.

Undermines credibility if unverified; suggests real-world harm from show without evidence, amplifying "at what cost?" thesis.

Framing

Juxtaposes real Herschkopf exploitation (from author's podcast) directly with Shrinking's fictional violations, sequencing to imply the show normalizes such harms (e.g., "If you want to see what can happen when a therapist crosses ethical boundaries, watch Shrinking").

Creates false equivalence between dramatized comedy and real tragedy, implying viewers will mimic without noting fiction's exaggeration or expert consensus on boundary risks.

Source Credibility

Relies heavily on author's own podcast case (Herschkopf) and 2-3 critical experts (Appelbaum, Gabbard) without counter-experts or show consultants.

Author's podcast tie creates self-promotion loop; stacks critical voices in opinion piece, implying consensus on "harm" without pro-show therapists.