The Sunnydale Psychological Community

[heckate]

Alright, so Maggie Walsh is a psychology professor of some renown, right? Willow's all "The professor's supposed to be great!" And Sunnydale's a pretty small town (though it seems to grow and grow as the series progresses), so it makes sense that psychologists in the town would probably know each other -- or at least know OF each other.

And then we've got a whole season that revolves around a psychology class with no mention that Willow's own mother is herself a psychologist! (Or something like that -- she writes papers on adolescent psychology, at least). Why does Willow tell Buffy that they should take a psychology class, when her mom's been psychoanalyzing her her whole life? Something she clearly doesn't like in "Gingerbread". The writers don't really drop balls like that, a little line of "I wanna hear about brains from someone other than my mom," or, from Professor Walsh, "Rosenberg? Hey, I've read your mom's work!" would have been cool, just to grasp that thread of continuity.

Obviously Will's mom was just kind of a caricature of child-psychologist-parent-can't-connect-with-child (Leonard's mom on TBBT, anyone?) and wasn't particularly fleshed-out, but all I'm saying is that Sheila Rosenberg and Maggie Walsh probably knew each other. 🤷‍♀️

 

[DeadlyDuo]

Willow wants Buffy to do psychology because friends want to be in classes together. Also having experience in psychology would also allow Willow to play mind games on people.

 

[thrasherpix]

I'd have liked Walsh mentioning Rosenburg (assuming Willow's mom assumed her husband's surname over her own), but I can't imagine either Shiela or Maggie being able to stand each other. Don't get me wrong, I think as far as the show goes they're both believable psychologist or psychiatrist (the only one psychiatrist that came off as "you've got to be kidding me" is the one in Normal Again), but with very different philosophies on both life and the point of psychology. Maggie Walsh may bluntly tell Willow that in making remarks on Willow's answers and assignments (and maybe a sarcastic, "go to your mother for a hug" when Willow is upset over Oz being kicked out of the class).

Though interesting question...how do psychiatrists (with the medical focus) and psychologists (with the mental focus) see each other, generally speaking?

 

[M]

Where is Sheila publishing her work? Where does Sheila work? Maggie Walsh was a professor as a cover, qualified most likely, but it was largely a cover.

I agree the show's creators didn't think about the consequences of what they threw out there sometimes, so trying to justify elements of the show with logic often really strains the imagination. However, I like puzzles, so here we go.

If I'm justifying it, Maggie and Sheila came from different backgrounds and were moving in different circles. We don't know how renowned Sheila was, but Maggie Walsh is supposed to be. Why is Sheila in Sunnydale, of all places? Maggie is there because of Hellmouth activity. What's Sheila's excuse for being in a one-horse town? Likely, if Maggie was there just for her day job, she might have eventually become aware of the local psych community, but in her after hours, she had other priorities.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

It seems reasonable.

 

[TriBel]

Obviously Will's mom was just kind of a caricature of child-psychologist-parent-can't-connect-with-child...and wasn't particularly fleshed-out, but all I'm saying is that Sheila Rosenberg and Maggie Walsh probably knew each other. 🤷‍♀️

You'd think wouldn't you but that's really not the case. I taught at university for 20+ years and there were academics who'd been faculty members for longer who had no idea who anyone was outside their own department (sometimes not even that). A sports psychologist (for instance) might never cross paths with a child psychologist. Renown doesn't count for much because academics areas of interest/specialisms are so narrow. Some one with research interests in spiritual abuse isn't going to read the work of a fellow academic whose expertise is in marketing no matter how famous he/she is. Similarly, some academics lived locally but others commuted. Vampires aside, Sunnydale might be a good place to bring up a family but otherwise it doesn't offer much. I had colleagues who made a two hour commute because they preferred to live elsewhere. You can read and write on a train.

It's quite possible they know each other but equally believable they don't.

how do psychiatrists (with the medical focus) and psychologists (with the mental focus) see each other

I think it depends. My son's a psychologist. When he worked in a hospital he worked as part of a multidisciplinary team and I think there had to be an element of compromise. You learn to dovetail your interests with that of colleagues. At present, he works in a community setting and I think there's a greater distance between psychology and psychiatry because they're not actually working together...they're connected by email, referrals etc. TBH, I think it boils down to the individual: some are more open-minded about other forms of treatment, either as replacement or enhancement while others are zealots who refuse to consider alternatives. I've seen schisms in a single Psychology department between closed minded clinical psychologists and (for example) social psychologist.