Perry Mason 174: Mason & DBT

Note: Raymond Burr’s Perry Mason was the still point in a world spinning with agitation and half-truths. Great actors truly listen, and Burr gave us a lawyer who listened - not perfunctorily, but with an attentive calm that made silence feel electric. Fans remember the courtroom fireworks, but I’d argue the most remarkable moments were often in the jail cell interviews, where Burr revealed that Mason’s real power lay in restraint. Burr gave fellow actors space to sustain a scene, as Mason absorbed his client’s story like a sponge - intently, mindfully. Burr’s Mason didn’t interrupt; he inhaled. And when he exhaled, it was with the quiet authority of a man who had glimpsed the light and stillness he could bring to a client’s crisis, even as the police misconstrued evidence and assumed guilt.

Perry Mason Through the Lens of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Perry Mason, the iconic defense attorney from Erle Stanley Gardner’s novels and the subsequent TV adaptation, exemplifies traits that can be examined through the framework of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). DBT emphasizes four core skill sets: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness - all of which resonate with Mason’s approach to law and life.

Mindfulness is central to Mason’s investigative style. He remains fully present during client interviews and witness’ testimony in the courtroom. This ability to listen and discern while suspending judgment allows him to identify inconsistencies and details others overlook and craft compelling defenses. His mindful attention to nuance mirrors DBT’s principle of “wise mind,” balancing logic and emotion - a hallmark of Mason’s success. Staying present, being here, now, also reinforces courage:

Make up your mind to one thing, Mrs. Warren. After water has run downstream and over the dam, you can't find any way on earth of getting it back upstream and over the dam a second time. Take things as they come. Concentrate on the present, forget the past. (TCOT Phantom Fortune)

Distress & Frustration Tolerance emerges in Mason’s composure under pressure. Clients charged with Murder-One are playing for life-or-death stakes, yet Mason never succumbs to aggravation or alarm or frustration. Instead, he employs problem-solving strategies akin to DBT’s “radical acceptance,” acknowledging the stern reality of high-risk situations while focusing on actionable steps. For instance, when evidence seems damning, level-headed Mason reframes the challenge as an opportunity to uncover the truth that is truth and refute the DA’s truth that just seems like the truth.

“A man can nearly always think his way out of any situation in which he finds himself. It’s merely a paraphrase of the old saying that where there’s a will there’s a way.” (TCOT Sulky Girl)

Emotion Regulation is evident in Mason’s controlled demeanor. While passionate about justice, he tempers his emotions to maintain clarity. DBT teaches skills like “checking the facts,” which Mason intuitively applies - choosing calm deliberation over flailing. His ability to regulate emotions not only maintains his credibility but also reassures anxious clients, reinforcing trust.

My experience has always been that these things look much worse than they actually are. In fact, I tell my clients that nine times out of ten they can say to themselves, 'Things are never as bad as they seem.' I admit things look black, but we're going to keep fighting, and don't you get discouraged. (TCOT Beautiful Beggar)

“Things look bad and we are still capable of fighting back” is a solid DBT “both/and” statement that encourages holding two seemingly opposing truths at the same time, moving away from rigid “either/or” thinking. It calls to mind Marine General Puller saying at the Chosin Reservoir, “We’ve been looking for the enemy for some time now. We’ve finally found him. We’re surrounded. That simplifies things.”

Finally, Interpersonal Effectiveness defines Mason’s relationships with clients, colleagues, witnesses, persons of interest, and even adversaries like Lt. Tragg. He navigates complex social dynamics – such as asking complete strangers nosey questions - with assertiveness and empathy, embodying DBT’s goal of showing respect for people while achieving his own objectives – milking them for information before the cops do.

“What right have I got to sit back with that ‘holier than thou’ attitude and expect [clients] to come clean with a total stranger? They come here when they’re in trouble. They’re worried and frightened. They come to me for consultations. I’m a total stranger to them. They need help. Poor fools, you can’t blame them for resorting to subterfuges." (TCOT Curious Bride)

Like some DBT therapists advise their clients today, Mason knows that people-watching can be a mindful activity that fosters empathy.

“I like to watch people around a depot. It’s fascinating. You can see so much of human nature that way. People aren’t on their guard when they’re dead-weary or when they’re completely removed from their usual environment. A person who lives here in the city feels he’s on his own home ground, no matter what part of the city he’s in, unless it’s the depot. But the minute he walks into the depot he’s started, so to speak, on a complete change of environment and he lets his guard down.” (TCOT Lonely Heiress)

Viewed through DBT, Perry Mason exemplifies psychological flexibility and effective people skills. His success stems not merely from legal acumen but from behaviors aligned with DBT principles: mindful observation, tolerance of uncertainty, emotional balance, and effective interaction. These qualities position Mason as more than a fictional lawyer; he becomes a role model of adaptive functioning under constant challenges - a testament to the enduring relevance of DBT skills in helping  people navigate problems from addictions and cutting to pushing people away and overthinking unto paralysis.

Veterans Day 2025

Fortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet - Lewis B. Puller, Jr.

In the first part of this autobiography, Puller tells how hard it was to be the son of the most decorated Marine in the in the history of the Corps, Gen. Lewis “Chesty” Puller Sr.  Talk about larger than life! Marines told Chesty stories such as the time Puller was shown the prototype of a flamethrower. He asked, “Where does the bayonet go?”

The second part covers Puller’s combat experience in Vietnam. Puller joined the Marines after graduating from the College of William and Mary in 1967. The following summer he married Linda, nicknamed Toddy. He was sent to Vietnam as a second lieutenant

After two months in the field - every day an eternity - on October 11, 1968 he stepped on a mine booby trap. “I had no idea,” he wrote, “that the pink mist that engulfed me had been caused by the vaporization of most of my right and left legs.” He lost parts of both hands and most of his buttocks and stomach too. Doctors later gave testimony before a pension benefit board that they had rarely seen any survivor who was as gravely wounded and disabled as Puller.

The next part of the book is about his physical therapy and the long road to the point where he could resume his life. As illness memoir, this will fascinate readers who are curious about physical therapy to rehab lower limb amputees. Puller tells funny stories about the antics of fellow patient Bob Kerrey, who was to pull antics of a Senatorial sort during the Clinton years. Puller became the proud father of two children. He earned a law degree at William and Mary in 1974 and went to work for the government in Veterans Affairs.

In 1978 he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for an eastern Virginia congressional seat. This section of the book is interesting too because it tells about the grind of a campaign, the chuckle-headedness of some voters and the spite and malice of politicians.

He ran against the canny and skillful Paul S. Trible, who later acted in the usual vindictive fashion of politicians by vetoing Puller for a job he could not have been more qualified to do. The strong appeal of this book is Puller’s willingness to name names.

Besides being a memoir of war, physical therapy, and politics, this is also an addiction memoir. He had bouts with survivor’s guilt, depression, alcoholism, and dependence on painkillers. His experience with a 12-step program - which he oddly does not name - will inspire readers. The memoir ends on a positive note.

This memoir was published to great acclaim in 1991. It won the Pulitzer Prize. Unfortunately, in the next couple of years Puller’s life unraveled because of clinical depression and relapse into alcohol and substance abuse. On May 11, 1994 Puller, at the age of 48, took his own life in his Alexandria, VA house.

Puller was buried in Arlington with full military honors. “He had fought his way out of so many holes,” Bob Kerrey told People magazine at the time. “In the end he couldn't fight his way out of the last one.”

War Challenge #19

Read for the War Challenge with a Twist 2014 at War Through the Generations

Meanwhile Back at the Front – Gene L.Coon

Star Trek fans will recall that Coon’s Trek scripts such as "Arena", and "A Taste of Armageddon" had more reflective attitudes about conflict, diplomacy, and war than we would expect from TV even in the late 1960s.

As a Marine, Coon fought in the Pacific Theater in WWII. After the Big One, he was a China Marine and saw duty in occupied Japan. After WWII, he was a Marine reservist. Like many reservists, he was recalled to the USMC during the Korean War. He was assigned as a radio combat reporter during the Chosin Reservoir campaign and in GEN Rideways’ advance up the center of the peninsula. He brought all this experience to this comic novel about the marines and soldiers in the Korean War and published it in 1961.

Like Catch-22 though not as tragically absurd, it is simultaneously implausible and realistic. The satire of the war correspondents is bitingly funny. Examples of Hemingway-esque, overblown, and cliché-ridden style of war reporting generate many laughs. The large cast of characters provides various picaresque types, even real-life GEN Chesty Puller appears as “Gutsy Pusher.” All the episodes are loosely connected by a rambling plot involving a mobile bar-and-brothel in the combat zone. Predating the MASH books and TV show, the theme is the creative and daring individual versus the by-the-book collectivism of the military-minded.

With the stipulation that this is very much a guy’s book, given the emphasis on Marines and broads, this is an entertaining novel also about the uneasy place of reservists recalled to the Marines, the restive Marines under Army command, the rivalry of reporters with each other, and the tensions between embedded reporters and the military. He also pokes fun at the Marine self-image, which is something that only a Marine can do in safety, I imagine. Finally, it is worth reading if only because there must be relatively few comic novels about the Korean War not involving MASH uni