Syracuse Herald Journal
Hollywood stars seek psychiatric help
November 16, 1992
The glib and the glamorous and the glitzy – some of Hollywood’s brightest stars have sought help on the psychiatric couch.
Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, Billy Crystal, Barbra Streisand and Jack Nicholson are among the celebrities who relate their experiences in an article by David Ragan in the current issue of Cosmopolitan.
“It took many years of analysis to discover I could be famous and still be me,” Hawn said. “I was afraid of it at first. I feared analysis might make me lose what I liked about myself– the little person who delights in little things, a woman who doesn’t need diamonds and furs to be happy. But I found that analysis made the ‘little me’ bigger and
stronger. After seven years, I came away with more awareness and confidence.”
Kathleen Turner was another one to hit the couch to deal with fame.
“1 had this feeling there was a Kathleen Turner who was getting a lot of attention and who was more important than I was,” she said. “And I was helping her! I thought, ‘this is sick'”‘
Jack Nicholson’s therapy was different.
“My therapy was Reichian, which is all sexual,” he said. “If you’re not releasing sexual energy in your life, you’re in trouble. It’s not that sex is the primary element of the universe, it’s just that when it’s unfulfilled, it will affect you negatively.”
Not all the stars applaud their stint on the couch. Bette Midler said, “When I was about 19, 1 was in analysis for a year, but I didn’t get much out of it. I finally had to go to another shrink so he could tell me how to get rid of the first shrink.”
