Where Dr. Melfi Blew It
By Joel Whitebook
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2001, at 11:40 AM ETDear Phil, Peg, and Glen,
There is no doubt the Jennifer finds herself in an extremely difficult therapeutic situation. Gloria and Tony are toying with her like "great cats of prey"--contemptuously flaunting their power and defiance--and there isn't much Dr. Melfi can do. At these points, I've often found that saying the clichéd thing--for example, "you're trying to make me feel as powerless as you felt when your were a child"--falls flat and just makes the situation worse. When Tony gave her the money, however, Jennifer had a clear opening, but she blew it. The only example we've had of someone who refused Tony's money and wouldn't allow himself to be bought was the black New Jersey state trooper. And Tony was completely disoriented by the rejection. This whole thing came up at the end of an hour, when they always do, and Jennifer was caught off balance. If Jennifer was unable to firmly say no on the spot, she should have put the money aside, returned it to him at the beginning of the next hour, and explained her reasons. Instead, she is going to use the fact that the money is not going to purchase frivolous luxury items but is for a good cause--that is, textbooks for her son--to rationalize keeping it. In doing this, she is giving up one of the most crucial therapeutic opportunities that has come her way in a long time. For the discussion of the money could have been an Archimedean point for getting back into the therapy.
Where Dr. Melfi Blew It
By Joel Whitebook
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2001, at 11:40 AM ETThis 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. Reader Comments From The Fray:
The real patient here, of course, is us. Or, more properly, the show's audience.
The writers of the show had to reach, and reach far, to insert a character like Dr. Krakauer into the storyline for The Sopranos. It's a long enough stretch to put Carmela in therapy at all; but to have her come across the prophet Jeremiah in the guise of a New York therapist who won't take her money (a miracle sufficient to prove his divinity, if there be any doubters among you) is simply bizarre. So why did the writers do it? Simple: because it wasn't Carmela they were trying to shock to her senses, but us. Tony is a genuinely bad person, he tells her, and there's really no objective way to deny it. He's a criminal, and he kills people. And he beats up on a lot more people than he kills. He is genuinely evil, and only a culture awash in moral relativism would try to explain or justify his actions.
So why does Carmela stay with him?
So why do we?
We watch the show, and we're as guilty of making excuses for Tony as Carmela is. But we enjoy the lifestyle, the sense of adventure, the vicarious adrenaline rush a little bit too much to not make apologies for him...
What are we supposed to do? Turn off HBO like a bunch of self-righteous dingbats and never watch the show again? Nobody, least of all the writers, expects us to do that. Explicitly turn our backs on morality and say that we like Tony, murders and all, because he's somehow, in some way that transcends his conduct, a "good person"? Who knows? The lesson so eloquently taught here is that it's tantalizingly easy to make excuses for horrible acts if you like the person who's committing them. You can make those excuses or not; I certainly will. But you can't say that you weren't told.
--Thrasymachus
(To reply, or to read this post in full, click here.)
I would like to see Dr Gabbard et al take up the question, since they are dissecting Dr Melfi's treatment of Tony Soprano, of what the goal of such a therapy could be? Tony's wife broaches this at one point and it is clear that an outcome that would involve Tony renouncing his mobster life would exact a price too high for either of them. Short of that, there is no way I see to heal the splits in his psyche--and except in a 'managed care' scenario which this is clearly not, I can't see Dr Melfi aiming to 'restore him to his previous level of functioning'. A killer who doesn't experience panic? As his viewers we experience the panic and turmoil as absolutely the best part of him. Will David Chase write Tony out of the mob via his therapy? Will it be suicide by gangland war? His venture into her office challenges the most basic premises of his existence; the mere fact that he's doing it causes mother and uncle to want him dead, even before it's accomplished much of anything. He is dealing with truly nuclear forces. If they understand therapy as well as it looks like they do, these writers should give us a fascinating denouement
--Jean Milofsky MD
(To reply, click here.)
(4/9)
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Reader Comments From The Fray:
The real patient here, of course, is us. Or, more properly, the show's audience.
The writers of the show had to reach, and reach far, to insert a character like Dr. Krakauer into the storyline for The Sopranos. It's a long enough stretch to put Carmela in therapy at all; but to have her come across the prophet Jeremiah in the guise of a New York therapist who won't take her money (a miracle sufficient to prove his divinity, if there be any doubters among you) is simply bizarre. So why did the writers do it? Simple: because it wasn't Carmela they were trying to shock to her senses, but us. Tony is a genuinely bad person, he tells her, and there's really no objective way to deny it. He's a criminal, and he kills people. And he beats up on a lot more people than he kills. He is genuinely evil, and only a culture awash in moral relativism would try to explain or justify his actions.
So why does Carmela stay with him?
So why do we?
We watch the show, and we're as guilty of making excuses for Tony as Carmela is. But we enjoy the lifestyle, the sense of adventure, the vicarious adrenaline rush a little bit too much to not make apologies for him...
What are we supposed to do? Turn off HBO like a bunch of self-righteous dingbats and never watch the show again? Nobody, least of all the writers, expects us to do that. Explicitly turn our backs on morality and say that we like Tony, murders and all, because he's somehow, in some way that transcends his conduct, a "good person"? Who knows? The lesson so eloquently taught here is that it's tantalizingly easy to make excuses for horrible acts if you like the person who's committing them. You can make those excuses or not; I certainly will. But you can't say that you weren't told.
--Thrasymachus
(To reply, or to read this post in full, click here.)
I would like to see Dr Gabbard et al take up the question, since they are dissecting Dr Melfi's treatment of Tony Soprano, of what the goal of such a therapy could be? Tony's wife broaches this at one point and it is clear that an outcome that would involve Tony renouncing his mobster life would exact a price too high for either of them. Short of that, there is no way I see to heal the splits in his psyche--and except in a 'managed care' scenario which this is clearly not, I can't see Dr Melfi aiming to 'restore him to his previous level of functioning'. A killer who doesn't experience panic? As his viewers we experience the panic and turmoil as absolutely the best part of him. Will David Chase write Tony out of the mob via his therapy? Will it be suicide by gangland war? His venture into her office challenges the most basic premises of his existence; the mere fact that he's doing it causes mother and uncle to want him dead, even before it's accomplished much of anything. He is dealing with truly nuclear forces. If they understand therapy as well as it looks like they do, these writers should give us a fascinating denouement
--Jean Milofsky MD
(To reply, click here.)
(4/9)