Dr. Phil, Medical Theaters, Freak Shows, and Talking Couches: The Talking Stage as Pedagogical Site

The article explores the ways in which contemporary popular talk shows, like Dr. Phil, mark a shift from a freak show culture previously fascinated with physical differences to an infatuation with the exhibition of mental disabilities. The article suggests that Dr. Phil, which combines the discourses of the freak show, psychoanalytic couch, and medical theater, produces a particular relationship with a viewer that moves beyond entertainment and produces a hybrid pedagogical site conceived as a talking stage. As such, the show reproduces and affirms rather than diminishes the stigma associated with nonvisible disabilities such as bipolar disorder. It is argued that to fully critique and understand the impact of the talking stage, an embodied understanding and approach to mental disability is necessary and mind-body dualities must be disrupted.