Glen, I’m with you in being struck by how well the therapy presented during the first two seasons of The Sopranos approximates our work, warts and all. Thankfully the writers grasped the gritty entertainment in what works and doesn’t in the intimate engagement of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. I’m troubled less than you arethatthis season they slipped into arcane analytic theory (recovered memory) to explain Tony’s panic attacks.
What bothered me more is what feels like a shift in characters. Episode 3’s therapy session on Sunday night was peculiarly jocular.WhenTony protestedabout wanting some real therapeutic change, Melfi was too swift to propose “managed care” alternatives in the form of behavioral treatment. Nothing essentially wrong with her prescription as adjunctive treatment, but won’t Tony feel intolerably abandoned by being shunted off to another therapist? Such provocation in Season 1 was the stuff of bolting for the door or coffee table-smashing narcissistic injuries. And equally strange was how much Jennifer has recovered from her own traumatic reactions to having to “lam it” at the beginning of the second season. Remember, that trauma had her nipping Belvedere vodka right before her sessions with T.S., not to mention (appropriately)turning to her own therapist fortreatment. Of course, the brilliance of The Sopranos’writing crew is that they are perpetually setting us up for some sucker punch. Sowe armchair analysts will likely get our comeuppance shortly.
