MovieChat Forums > Good Will Hunting (1998) Discussion > The first therapist dumping Will for bei...

The first therapist dumping Will for being a lunatic


That's like an oncologist dumping a patient for having cancer.

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Lol, true that was a stupid line

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He didn't want to distance himself from Will for being crazy, he did it because Will outed him.

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exactly op is stupid

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Still, that's one of the dumbest parts of the whole movie. It's like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have some sort of personal grudge against psychologists and so, deliberately wrote them as idiots in their film. It's one thing for clients to act hostile when ordered to see a shrink upon court's orders, but any experienced clinical psychologist should probably know how to deal with this. The part that's even dumber, is when Sean completely flies off the handle and pins Will against the wall on their first meeting. It's hard to believe a man of such short temper and poor self-control could have ever amounted to becoming a professional in mental health. The whole movie is littered with ridiculous moments such as these. It's a crap film.

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Nah. You missed the point: that scene is to show that Will could get into ANYBODY's head. Even a brilliant, experienced mental health professional.

The only other time you see Sean lose it is when his oldest frenemy does the same: gets in his head.

Your lack of perception =/= "crap film." Just FYI.

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We have to remember that Will said some nasty things about Sean's much beloved late wife.
I don't believe that Sean normally got physical with his clients.
Will just happened to do the one thing, that happened to be Sean's berserk button.
Similarly, being "outed" was probably that other guy's biggest fear and the one thing that he couldn't accept.
Will must have somehow had the ability to sense what anybody's weakness was and use it against them.
Maybe he didn't know that Sean would get physical, but he did what he could to scare psychologists away.
Because he didn't really want any therapy and tried to make sure that nobody would agree to work with him.
Actually, it is incredible but fortunate that Sean was willing to take the job after all...

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I've always thought it was interesting that George Plimpton took this role. He was a great writer (He wrote a lot of sports-related things, including an article in "Sports Illustrated" when I was in high school about a baseball pitcher named Sidd Finch, who was an "eccentric," but could supposedly throw a baseball 168 mph...turns out, the entire article was fake and an "April Fool's Day joke...he and the magazine took a lot of heat over it). Plimpton really did have that "snobbish East Coast vibe" in real life...I think it was really great casting and kudos to Plimpton (RIP) for taking a role that didn't exactly put him in a flattering light! 😃

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I think it was more of a case of Will knowing he was gay.

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He may have been gay or maybe not. I think he was just an upper crust snob who didn't appreciate some punk kid messing with him

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Even a therapist has their limits. When they can't be objective they know they can't treat the patient.

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