These days, Britain's best known comic refers to himself as Britain's best known psychiatric patient.
He is, of course, Monty Python's John Cleese. Famous for his TV role as the loony hotel proprietor in "Fawlty Towers," or as barrister in the buff in the film "A Fish Called Wanda," Cleese has gotten up from the shrink's couch to help the British cope with life in a new best-seller written with his former therapist.Wait a minute. Basil Fawlty on the art of healthy living?
No, this is the calmer, more cooperative 53-year-old Cleese. Last February, Cleese and London psychiatrist Robin Skynner released their book in Britain, "Life and How to Survive It" (Methuen). The book is a follow-up to their first book on family relationships released a decade ago, "Families and How to Survive Them" (Oxford University Press, $9.95).
A layman's guide to healthy living, the duo's latest book is more than Freud meets Monty Python's Minister of Silly Walks. It is an articulate and sometimes zany conversation on the behavior of individuals, families, businesses and schools. It is a glimpse into cultures such as a deteriorating African tribe known as the Ik, or the robust Ladakhis in northern India.
And yes, they even talk about that tribe known as Americans. Cleese has married a few of them, after all.
In an unprecedented forum in central London recently, Cleese and Skynner sat before an audience of 1,000 for a talk teetering between the hilarious and the teary. Although not traditionally keen on self-analysis, the British seemed to relax their notorious stiff upper lips as the duo revealed what they know about pain, depression, humor and healing.
On anger: "I think that I've always been frightened of anger," Cleese says. "I think I've also been frightened throughout my life by lack of communication, the sense of lack of contact. If I think of `Fawlty Towers,' it's really what it's about - people who can't be angry, or Basil who can't be angry, and also the complete failure to communicate. Without realizing it for many years I was trying to laugh at the things that frightened me most."
On depression: "Robin told me it was blocked sadness," Cleese says. "I found that very, very helpful. That is to say if I can actually get in touch with the sadness I am frightened of feeling, if I get in touch with the sadness underneath it, then I find it clears."
On creativity: "A lot of creative ability does come from neurosis, pain. I think artists often are frightened of losing their creativity and one can understand that, but maybe that is also part of an excuse for (not) getting in touch with pain," Cleese says.
Cleese and Skynner began working on their first book in 1980, after Cleese had been in therapy with Skynner. "Life and How to Survive It" is a continuation of their now famous dialogue, drawing on recent research from business, economics, religion, psychiatry and politics to help study healthy behavior in circles outside the family. Although no date or publisher has been announced, the two are considering adapting the book for release in the United States.
"I was looking for such a book from the time I was in my teens," Skynner says. "I'd always been looking for one really and never found it. What I wanted was a kind of guide or road map which would make sense of me to myself and other people to me."
In observing families, Skynner has determined that on a scale of seriously unhealthy to the well functioning, most families (60 percent) fall somewhere in the middle. The best of the best grant its members emotional independence, with a proper balance of separateness and intimacy. They provide the freedom to communicate openly, adapt well to change and affirm the feelings expressed by children.
How here's one to share with your boss. In the chapter titled, "Look Mummy, I'm Chairman of International Consolidated," they suggest that people may choose a work place suited to their mental health.
John: When people choose a particular job, how much are psychological factors affecting that choice?
Robin: Very strongly. People tend to be drawn to their type of work - and to organizations that are compatible with their own psychology - quite automatically, in the same way they choose their partner.
John: You mean they'll try to choose an organization that's like the family they grew up in?
Robin: Yes, in the sense of one that operates at a similar level of health. So a more healthy person will tend to pick a more healthy work-environment; a less healthy person will be drawn to a less healthy situation.
In the chapter "Anyone for Health?" they explain how healthier couples are less likely to cheat on their partners.
John: I know you think fidelity is important. But why? Is it because infidelity inevitably leads to lying, which destroys trust and intimacy?
Robin: Lying means you can't be open, can't be fully yourself, and that obviously makes real intimacy impossible. If people are really healthy, they will therefore be straight about other attractions they may feel. And because they aren't possessive and clinging, there would be no reason why feeling `turned on' by members of the opposite sex other than their partner should cause problems; indeed, I would expect it to enhance the relationship. But actually having another sexual relationship is another matter, because this would prevent either relationship from reaching its full possibility.
Of course Basil, I mean Cleese, must ask the question troubling almost everyone.
John: What are the mature ways of dealing with real stress?
Robin: Well, one of them is anticipation. You reduce the stress of some difficult challenge by anticipating what it will be like and preparing for how you are going to deal with it. Then, because you've done your homework, as it were, you can relax a bit, because you're more confident you can cope.
Critics have claimed Cleese's self revelations have diminished his humor. Conventional wisdom has it, according to the Telegraph Magazine, that "neurosis made him funny, and sanity has made him a dull boy." His agent, David Wilkinson, says look at "A Fish Called Wanda." That was funny. Others can't understand why a nutty, twice-divorced comic has the authority to preach mental health tips.
But many who have read the first book or have watched the two in action say they appreciate the accessibility of the message and the earnestness of the men. Given Britain's recession, high unemployment and the recent murder of a 2-year-old that has horrified the country, the book couldn't be better timed.
Londoner Jack Harvey says his country has been resistant to such free discussion on emotional issues. But Cleese's humor has helped the British discover that therapy is not about funny farms, men in white coats and people with substandard intelligence.
"There's always been a feeling that even if you've suffered a bad bereavement, if you went to see a shrink or a psychotherapist then you were probably weak and that you should be strong on your own without it. There was never the acceptance that's it's gained in the states," Harvey says.
Cleese does not pretend to play sage, acknowledging he does not have all the answers. He frets about upstaging his esteemed friend amid the book's publicity and remains modest.
"He (Skynner) does know a little bit about some areas and I know a little bit about comedy, but most of the time we don't know what we're talking about," Cleese says. Chuckle chuckle. "But if we join hands, and stumble along and listen to each other I actually think we can get things right."