The actress Shelley Duvall is best remembered for her indelible portrayal of a terrified woman in The Shining, opposite Jack Nicholson. But that performance wasn’t ultimately as disturbing as Duvall’s appearance on Dr. Phil. Duvall admits to Dr. Phil that she is “sick” and “needs help.”
Dr. Phil claims to use his “show’s platform to make psychology accessible and understandable to the general public” and “as a teaching tool.” But the interview with Duvall seems more like a circus show, shining an invasive light on a woman whose celebrity has faded and whose grasp on reality is apparently tenuous. (She believes former co-star Robin Williams isn’t dead but “shape-shifting” — she claims to have seen him recently.) Dr. Phil hopes to teach about “bullying, drug abuse, domestic violence, depression, child abuse, suicide and various forms of severe mental illness.” What the public will learn from his Shelley Duvall interview is hard to grasp. But when she says she “needs help” he replies “that’s why I’m here.”
