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The Sopranos: Season 4 Analyzed; Week 10

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from: Margaret Crastnopol
to: Glen Gabbard, Philip Ringstrom, and Joel Whitebook

A Vendetta Against Melfi?

Posted Monday, Nov. 18, 2002, at 4:53 PM ET

Who are these people?

Yes, I admit I hold Melfi to high standards, and that it certainly is easier to Monday morning (or Sunday night) quarterback someone else's treatment than to do the best thing with one's own most difficult patients. It wouldn't surprise me if there were some gender issues operating in my own harshness with Jennifer (she's a female like me, so I identify with but also perhaps compete with her), but also in my two male colleagues' defense of her. (Would you be as forgiving of her functioning if she were male, and therefore not "other"?)

I do concur that it's excellent that Melfi "gets" Tony's "sad clown" presentation for its remarkably defensive element. However, I'm sure you'll agree that even though one may grasp the potential hypocrisy in a patient's denial or dissociation, one has to pick one's moment carefully for being confrontive about it to maximal therapeutic effect. I had the feeling that she would have gotten more mileage with an empathic than with a confrontive approach at this point in Tony's development, but who knows? The proof will be in the pudding—that is, we'll see if he can make use of Jennifer's in your face, accurate intervention. And this "empirical" approach (what happened next?) is so often the only way we can gauge the "correctness" of our work.

Peggy

tv club
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from: Margaret Crastnopol
to: Glen Gabbard, Philip Ringstrom, and Joel Whitebook

A Vendetta Against Melfi?

Posted Monday, Nov. 18, 2002, at 4:53 PM ET
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Glen O. Gabbard, M.D., is a professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and author of The Psychology of The Sopranos, inspired by this discussion. Philip A. Ringstrom, Ph.D., Psy.D., is a senior faculty member at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles. Joel Whitebook, Ph.D., 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. All are practicing therapists as well.
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Remarks From The Fray:

The doctor delares Tony's love of animals stems from the fact that "...[animals] don't operate from rampant, calculating self-interest, as do most of Tony's cohorts." Excuse me? Does anything operate *more* in terms of rampant, calculating self-interest than an animal? What Tony appreciates in animals is their loyalty, their unconditional love, their acting on instinct and the simplicity of their relations.

In humans, he doesn't hate their self-interest so much as their lacking the ability to transcend it. In this sense, he continues to lie to himself. Few on this show behave more in terms of blind, animal self-interest than T.

-- Captain Ron Voyage

(To reply, click here.)


Last night's episode makes it official: Dr. Melfi is no longer able to effectively manage Tony's mental heath. First, she completely glossed over the distressing admission that Tony doubled his medication without her consent. The doctor lodges a feeble protest that elicits a defense from her patient, who comically (and tragically) compares his mental health to an errant jet plane. Dr. Melfi abdicates responsibility by neglecting to reassert her professional duty to decide the correct dosage for Tony, and instead allows her patient to hijack treatment. Her lapse of judgment in this matter is inexcusable.

Second, Dr. Melfi becomes combative and antagonistic when Tony intriguingly describes himself as a "tragic clown." This startling admission could provide the traction she needs to achieve a breakthrough for her patient, but instead she takes the opportunity to peruse her own agenda. Her childish accusations about Tony's past behavior undermines her therapeutic role, and comes across as nagging and accusatory. Curiously, she changes Tony's poignant self-characterization into an innocuous childhood reference, entirely missing the wealth of information offered by the "tragic clown" identification. I seriously doubt Tony sees himself as the kind of clown parents hire to entertain youngsters at birthday parties, as Dr. Melfi assumes. Rather, Tony's comparison suggests the hallucinatory funhouse, the freak show and the chaotic three-ring circus. Any psychiatrist should immediately connect the terror many children associate with clowns, circuses and carnivals. Tony may also be referencing the Italian tradition of Commedia del Arte, casting himself in the role of Pagliacciothe lecherous yet impotent clown. This tragic clown continues to figure prominently in Italian art, cinema and opera, and it is certainly possible that Tony has more than a passing familiarity with this archetype.

But we may never know what Tony meant by his tragic clown remark thanks to Dr. Melfi's self-absorption and professional incompetence. Tony may indeed be tragic, but it is Dr. Melfi who is becoming a clown.

-- socalchango

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(11/18)

Washington Post