Misplaced sympathy has triggered lively debate on the horror subreddit over a real psychiatrist’s professional opinion that fictional mass murderer Michael Myers was the real victim in the Halloween franchise.
A fan took to r/Horror to discuss Dr. Tobia’s comments that despite Myers’s profoundly anti-social behavior, he was also a victim of incompetent mental health treatment from Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence).
Psychology professor Anthony Tobia appeared on Episode 7 of the Halloween Unmasked podcast, ‘Michael Myers: Psychopath, Serial Killer…And Victim’, describing Myers as displaying conversion disorder, voyeurism, and autism.
Dr. Tobia points out that in the films, Dr. Loomis objectifies Myers, referring to his patient as “it” and “the evil.” Furthermore, he does nothing to assist the psychiatric nurse who fell during Myers’s infamous escape. Dr. Tobia argues that Loomis is a poor role model for psychiatry.
“Loomis misdiagnosed his patient and did not provide the proper care, resulting in Michael not getting better.”
While fans were intrigued by Dr. Tobia’s in-depth take on one of the famous serial killers in cinema, not everyone agreed with his thesis. OP felt that some of Dr. Tobia’s assertions were way off base.
Many fans struggled to see Myers as a victim. While they agreed that Dr. Loomis was problematic, they saw Michael’s condition as beyond the scope of therapeutic interventions.
Others came to Dr. Loomis’s defense, arguing in favor of the idea that Michael Myers was an incarnation of pure evil.
Some fans acknowledged Myers’s clinician’s appalling attitude toward him but pointed out the paranormal aspect of who he was.
Horror movies must convey big and terrifying ideas to large audiences in a short time. They almost always fail to capture the complexity of mental health issues, opting for more simplistic and binary explanations for human behavior. Even if fans may not agree with Dr. Tobia’s point of view about Michael Myers, it is good to know that mental health care today does not lose sight of a patient’s humanity.