This clip from the Gumby Show episode “The Rodeo King. Pokey acquires the delusion that he is his favorite TV character, Buster Bronc, and Prickle — “that’s Doctor Prickle” — shows the attitude of any good therapist by immediately trying something else when his first attempt doesn’t work. In the clip:
- Pokey tries modifying the patient’s environment first.
- When that doesn’t work, he switches to hypnosis.
- When this, too, fails, he “prescribes the symptom.”
This brief clip from a children’s TV show in 1957 demonstrates a can-do attitude and a flexibility of method that is not always found in today’s therapists!
But we all knew that Gumby was special.