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The Sopranos: Week 6, Season 3

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from: Philip Ringstrom

Reflecting the Social Tableau of Our Time

Posted Tuesday, April 3, 2001, at 5:58 PM ET

Dear Joel,

Just wanted to clarify a couple of points. First, I liked Sunday's episode much more than Peggy or Glen, though I didn't think it was the best. I agree with you that it hits home in some important ways about the social tableau of our time, especially when seen not as a stand-alone episode but part of whole season, over half of which we have not yet seen. Second, I did not mean to suggest, as you interpreted, that the show is attempting to renew the great class struggle. On the contrary, I think that the show is only mirroring something of a universal constant. And that is that while inroads in sexism and racism can and have been made--Christ, look at the difference in both realms since the 1960s alone--the thing that hasn't changed, and dare I say isn't going to change, is classism. I think the writers, whether intentionally or not, are merely mirroring this. Classism exists whether you have unbridled capitalism or totally bridled communism, which has been a total failure at creating a truly classless society.

As psychoanalysts, our job is not to battle classism, or necessarily any of the other -isms for that matter, but to continually fight for the freedom of personal expression in waging an age-old war on how human beings objectify one another. Now that I think of it, all four of us end up on the same page this week regarding this episode, whether we saw it as the best or the worst thus far. This is because all of our reactions pertain to its powerful portrayal of objectification; that is, how readily human beings can treat fellow human beings as objects, stripping them of their humanity, utilizing them like a tissue that is disposable when no longer needed or seen as soiled. We witnessed what Ralphie did violently to Tracee and what Noah did nonviolently to Meadow. I think all four of us either loved or hated this episode because it so graphically illustrated this.

Phil

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from: Philip Ringstrom

Reflecting the Social Tableau of Our Time

Posted Tuesday, April 3, 2001, at 5:58 PM ET

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This spring, Slate will ask Dr. Melfi's real-life counterparts to examine developments on The Sopranos. Glen O. Gabbard, M.D., is a professor of psychoanalysis at the Menninger Clinic and co-author of Psychiatry and the Cinema. Philip A. Ringstrom, Ph.D., Psy.D., is an analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles and a full-time practitioner. Joel Whitebook, a practicing analyst in New York, is on the faculty of the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Margaret Crastnopol, Ph.D., is on the faculty of the Northwest Center for Psychoanalysis and a practicing psychologist/psychoanalyst in Seattle. Click here to comment on Sunday night's episode and here to read this series from the beginning.

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