Dear Glen and Phil,
I agree with both of you that while the couples therapy made for great entertainment–there were some fine moments in it–it didn’t make any sense therapeutically. We are given no reason why Dr. Melfi decides to bring Carmela in at this point, and it is difficult to think of a good therapeutic rationale. Furthermore, I think you are both right when you say it was bound to be a disaster. Introducing a spouse into an individual treatment that had been ongoing for three years has to backfire. But this brings us to the question of Jennifer’s motives. If they aren’t therapeutic, they must have been personal–countertransferrential, if you will. So let me venture a hypothesis. Last week, we were given many indications that the one-on-one work with Tony was becoming too intense and disturbing for Jennifer to handle. Her consultant already recognizes this early in the episode and suggests that she refer Tony to another therapist. But she is unable to see it through. And by the end of the episode, after she has returned to work from the rape, the intensity of her feelings toward Tony have even intensified further, to an altogether new level. This is clear in the dream and her last hour with him. Now, there undoubtedly many complicated and even contradictory reasons why Jennifer invites Carmela into the therapy. But I would say primary among them is the wish to dilute the intensity of the one-to-one relationship with Tony. It’s simply too much for her.
One further comment. Although I may not win much favor with our colleagues for saying this, we therapists frequently suffer from a common déformation professionnelle: We talk and behave like shrinks outside of our offices in our everyday lives. This often represents an attempt to control the “slings and arrows” that spouses, children, lovers, colleagues, and friends dish out to us like everyone else in life. Now I’m afraid that Jennifer suffers from this professional malady; that’s one of the reasons there are such strong reactions against her. She has the same formal, brittle, and overly intellectualized attitude when she interacts with her husband as she does when she’s with her patients. In this respect, Carmela is her exact opposite. She is spontaneous and visceral in her reactions, not frightened of feelings of the most intense sort, and she is remarkably honest with herself. When she allowed herself to be deluded with the priest, she made a quick intervention and corrected the situation. Now that they’ve met, the contrast and conflict between these two women is bound to become one of the dramatic centers of the show. And I’m not certain that Carmela doesn’t have the upper hand.
Joel
