In a therapeutic marketplace filled with a cornucopia of competing approaches, Jennifer's remains rather old-fashioned. She still believes that it is better to face the inevitable psychic pain of being human—however arduous that may be—than to evade it. In the long run, a strategy of denial, which can assume many forms, is generally self-defeating. And the confrontation with Tony's use of sentimentality as a form of denial is Dr. Melfi's most penetrating intervention to date.
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StumbleUponLike many of us, Tony can experience tender feelings that are otherwise inaccessible to him through affection for animals. But he carries this familiar phenomenon to a mawkish extreme. The show first grabbed our attention with the incongruous image of an oversized mafioso wadding into his swimming pool to care for a family of ducks. But now the incongruity—with all its complexity—has turned into a full-blown split. Though Tony is, as Jennifer observes, inconsolably preoccupied with Pie-O-My's death, he never grieves for people in the same way. And, with the possible exception of Big Pussy, he certainly doesn't grieve for the people whose blood is on his hands. Becoming "a sad clown" may be different than his usual way of dealing with sadness—which is to become volatile, rageful, compulsive, and so on—but it is an avoidance of psychic pain nevertheless. Tony rejects all this "touchy-feely Freudian bullshit" and launches into a speech about the deteriorating state of the world since Sept. 11. And in a self-serving, clichéd gesture, he even brings up Rodney King's plea that we all learn to live together. But Jennifer will have none of it, and reminds him "that he has caused a lot of suffering." Jennifer's struggle to get Tony to deal with the violent landscape of his inner world is heroic, but she doesn't seem to be having much success.
Tony has had many strong women as foils—Livia, Carmela, and Jennifer. But as Glen says, his encounter with Svetlana illuminates his self-deceptiveness in an especially unmistakable way. If Tony plays the "sad clown," Svetlana accepts her amputation—symbolic of the "castration" that life inflicts on all of us—with no self-pity. Like the rest of the world—and unlike Americans—she accepts the harshness of life and doesn't expect any escape from it. The result of this sober view of things, however, isn't depressive resignation. On the contrary, it frees Svetlana to take the world on its own terms and derive what gratification she can from it. Her industriousness and independence no doubt remind Tony—who has become deeply Americanized—of the immigrant Italian ancestors he is always nostalgically evoking. Tony is fascinated and turned on by her self-possessed aura. And Svetlana has no trouble acting on her attraction toward him. But when he wants to see her again, she knows better. She's got enough problems of her own, and doesn't need to be dragged down trying to rescue this charming but destructive villain. Unlike Jennifer, Svetlana has no illusions about the possibility of saving Tony Soprano.
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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
(To reply, click here.)
(11/18)