SPOILER ALERT: This post contains information from Season 1, Episodes 1-13 of Mistresses (US).
TRIGGER WARNING: This post briefly describes mild sexual violence, and references rape culture.
Sorry for the hiatus, folks! I'm back, and am jumping back in to pop culture analysis and deconstruction with Mistresses' portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Karen Kim, (played by Yunjin Kim).
First, some background. As discussed in the Mental Health Profession 101 post, a psychiatrist is someone with a medical degree [such as a D.O. (doctor of osteopathy) or M.D. (medical doctor)] who has completed post-doc training in assessing and treating psychological distress (things like anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, trauma, etc.). Most psychiatrists prescribe psychotropic medicine, and some also provide psychotherapy. Mistresses Dr. Kim is one of the latter. In the show, she is co-partner at a psychiatric private practice with former medical school colleague Jacob Pollack (played by Matthew del Negro).
There are a fair number of pros, and unfortunately, even more cons in Mistresses' portrayal of Dr. Kim. Let's start with the pros, shall we?
