More so than any recent situation comedy, The Simpsons is highly engaged with the discourse of psychology and popular psychology. Whether it is Lisa, who often voices Freudian insights when confronted by absurdity (usually in the form of something that Homer has done), or through direct parodies of the discipline in the figures of Dr. Marvin Monroe or Dr. Zweig, the writers of The Simpsons understand the reach of psychology in the popular imagination. It is a show which depends on the familiarity of the American public with various psychological concepts, ranging from the psychoanalytic (e.g., the Oedipal Complex, the Electra Complex, Rorschach therapy, the Id, Ego and Superego), to the diagnostic (e.g., the Rorschach or Ink-blot Test and diagnoses such as ADD and a specific phobia), to the therapeutic (e.g., shock therapy and free association) to the various personality tests that often make appearances in episodes. In its sixteen seasons, The Simp-sons has found success in part because its premise that its audience is psychologically literate has proven to be true.

And yet, the relationship between psychology and the show’s subject matter is often ambivalent. Much of the subtext of the plots that revolve around the psychological deals with the legitimacy of various precepts and the effectiveness or even the value of treatment. In the episode “Marge’s Fear of Flying,” Homer advises Marge to repress her fears so as not to “bother anyone,” whereas Lisa argues for the value of finding the root of her phobia through analysis. This  …