Trust therapy, beware the therapist. That’s the mixed message of Judith Light’s new TV movie, “Betrayal of Trust” (8 p.m. Monday, NBC-Ch. 5), a true-life story about a woman who says her psychiatrist drugged and raped her in his consulting room.
Light, who has herself benefited from consulting therapists, describes her character’s situation: “It’s devastating when you reveal your intimate emotional life to someone you’re paying to help you, and he betrays you.”
In 1966 Barbara Noel, a singer in Chicago who was having difficulties performing, went to Dr. Jules Masserman (played by Judd Hirsch). He treated her by injecting her with sodium amytal, “the truth drug,” saying it would help her talk about her problems. Then one day in 1984, she says, she woke up from a drugged stupor to find the doctor on top of her, raping her.
The book Noel subsequently wrote about what happened was called “You Must Be Dreaming.” The title described the reaction when she went public with her charge against Massingham, a past president of the American Psychiatric Association.
” `Shut up, little lady, you must be dreaming,’ is what everyone told her,” Light says. “But she decided she had to tell the truth, no matter what. She never imagined she’d stand up to the Establishment, but she did. Her story becomes an investigative drama as she starts uncovering others who were victims of the same thing.
“Eventually, telling the truth was Barbara’s way out. Confronting all the abuse she’d suffered in her life helped her grow up. She went to other therapists and AA, but her real therapy started when she told the truth in public.”
The Massingham case ended with the doctor, in his 80s, agreeing to stop practicing, though he didn’t admit guilt. The doctor’s insurance company paid $200,000 to Noel and $50,000 to three other patients of Massingham’s.
“Barbara took the settlement because for her it wasn’t ever about the money,” Light says. “It was about the process of truth-telling. At the beginning, it was about getting justice. Later on, it was about restoring her sense of self.”
Light is concerned that viewers of “Betrayal of Trust” might become suspicious of therapy itself.
“This is not a movie saying, `Watch out, don’t go to a therapist!’ I’ve had a male therapist and a female therapist as well. My issues were different from Barbara’s, but we both were in search of personal growth.
“Freud said 100 years ago that we are ruled by our unconscious, yet we do so little to make ourselves aware. This heart of darkness inside us can pollute our personal environment. For me, therapy was an investigative process that helped me stop being ruled by things that weren’t working for me.”
For many people, seeking help seems both shameful and painful. Many suffer quietly, make everyone around them miserable, drink or do drugs-all to avoid the pain of self-examination.
“It is hard to do that,” Light concedes. “But lots of things in life are hard. You don’t get places by magic, but by hard work over time. Believe me, the rewards are spectacular. When I live my therapy in my work and my relationships, I see the value of that work.”
Coincidentally or not, it was after Light had initiated the self-inquiry of therapy that her career broke out from a part here, a part there. After graduating from Carnegie-Mellon and playing mostly small roles on small stages for seven years, she auditioned for an understudy job on a New York soap, “One Life to Live,” and wound up playing a leading role for five years.
Afterward, in Hollywood, she starred for eight years as Tony Danza’s foil on “Who’s the Boss?” In TV movies she starred in “The Ryan White Story” as Ryan’s mother and in “Men Don’t Tell” as a husband-abuser. Now she’s back on the air in a new ABC sitcom, “Phenom,” playing the mother of a 15-year-old tennis prodigy coached by William Devane.
” `Phenom’ has an edge. It’s sometimes very sardonic. As the show progresses, the audience will see that I’m a bad girl who’s trying to be good now. The show’s creator, James L. Brooks, gave me a book to read, `Riding in Cars With Boys,’ and it was very helpful. Like the character in the book, the character in the show was maybe a bit `out there’ when she was young, a little bit steamy. Now she’s trying to be as good a mom as she can be without letting her wild side out.”
Light, never one to sit still and wool-gather, had a chance to test the efficacy of her therapy in the year since “Who’s the Boss?” went off the air.
“I am goal-driven. I am ambitious. I am intense,” she says, rapid-fire. “But when `Who’s the Boss?’ ended, I didn’t say, `Oh my God, I’ve got to get to work again,’ as I would have at the beginning of my career. I developed some ideas. I did a pilot for CBS (`Letting Go’) that wasn’t picked up. Then ABC came to me with `Phenom,’ and I thought it was a character people would enjoy.”
Light found support at home while out of work. Her husband is actor Robert Desiderio. They married after playing opposite each other on “One Life to Live.” “My relationship with him, my relationships with the people I work with, are my balance. These people tell me the truth and help me slow down.
“My career didn’t happen by magic. My relationships didn’t either. They happened because I worked hard and got my hands dirty.”
