Wednesday, February 06, 2008

In Treatment: Episode 8...the sub-blog



Sophie's back, she's all washed up, in from the rain. Paul gives Sophia some of his daughter's clothes and offers to dry hers. She tells him he has to help her change, with two broken arms she can't change by herself. Kate the wife is brought to help change the sopping teenager.

"You could learn a lot from your wife about how to talk to people."

She's angry that he hasn't written her evaluation. "WTF." "Are you a quack?" Oh, we shrink rappers like ducks. Why are all this guy's patients so tough on him? Oh and by the way "Your daughter's clothes are hideous. This is stupid. Are my clothes dry yet? Can you check? You people are such tools, I can't believe you get paid for this!"

Sophie talks about life at the gym, how you have to be anorexic, how everyone follows Cythe gymnastics coach around. It sounds like a pretty hostile environment. "They're leaving tomorrow for California for training camp and I can't go." Sophie picked a fight with Cy, it wasn't his fault. She was looking forward to training camp. Sophie talks about her relationship with Cy and his daughter, Dana, the one she babysits for.

"My dad was right, I'll go to therapy and end up a psycho. Just like your daughter, she's a freak. Shrinks kids are psycho. Everyone knows that." Great. Just what I want to hear. Let me go check in with my psycho teenagers.

Paul asks if she's trying to hurt him. Paul talks about how people are afraid of therapy, of opening wounds. He asks about Cy and Sophie asks about the status of her wet clothes. Can you check? She wants to hear her evaluation. He reads to her, all his comments are positive. He calls her mature and independent. He doesn't mention that she's guarded, inconsistent, and he never says to her, "Look, in order to evaluate you, I need to ask you some questions." Paul goes with the flow better than I do, I ask a lot of questions at the first visit.

Paul tells her he thinks someone in her life has broken the rules and when she asked him to help her change into dry clothes, she was testing him. Sophie talks about how after the accident, the world was soundless, how the noise came back. She talks about her anger at her mom, how they can't get along. And while Kate the shrink's wife helps her get dressed, she throws her arms around Kate. Never mind transference to the shrink, this kid has transference to the shrink's wife.

Who is the wife? She looks so familiar-- What else has she been in? I like her, I hope she isn't cheating on Paul. You can feel their tension, but I want them to be okay. My TV-viewer transference, perhaps. And you know, when you blog about a show like this, the characters somehow feel more like they're more Mine then when I just watch like every other TV viewer.

Paul is hot. Is that the right word? Warm, maybe. He's becoming less sexy as he becomes more human and flawed. I may have to go back to George Clooney for hot. I like Paul's office, it feels like a place I could sink into. I like the space, the clutter, and I'd like a cup of tea, please, while I pour my heart out. I would go along with the script better, though, so my sessions would never make it to TV. One of our commenters compared Paul to a bowl of crusty oatmeal left in the sink. What a great metaphor, and the same commenter didn't like the house, the decor, the clutter.

I ask my husband what the show is about. "I'm your beta test for the proletariat interpretation? It's about a girl who doesn't belong anywhere. " Sophie is my husband's favorite.

So patient Laura brings Paul's marital discord to the surface. When do we hear more about Rosy the weird shrink's kid, and Paul's relationship with her?

Anyone want to chime in?

15 comments:

Rach said...

Sophie gets to do EXACTLY what Laura can't - get into the inner, personal workings of Paul's life - the wife, the home, the kid (and the horrible clothes)... Laura wants in his pants, but she also wants the door opened on his life.

Sarebear said...

Inconsistent, definitely. I thought last week she said as she was laying there on the pavement (maybe not feeling anything? don't remember) that there was a crazy old lady saying and yelling that she did it on purpose, she saw it, etc.

But now she says she couldn't hear until later on in the ambulance. What's that change in story all about?

Little detail, I know, but you know the cliche.

When I asked, doesn't anyone worry about getting sued, this was mostly what I was talking about. Couldn't the girl or her parents sue for inappropriateness, even if it was the wife helping her and not the male shrink? Seriously, they put themselves in a very liable situation, to look at it matter-of-factly.

On the other hand, she's got two casts on, two broken arms . . . . how does a person just leave her cold and wet? And then, I can't help but think after tomorrow's episode, that Paul is worried about #$% #$%%^. Kinda cold of him, I thought.

Anyway, Boundaries with a capitol B! But then, how do you leave her like that? Of course, it was her choice, but it looked like she didn't expect his offer, and I really appreciated her going, Did you ask your daughter, to borrow these? Not because she necessarily respects Rosie, but because she's a teenager, and they want and demand respect from adults, they want their own space, they are very protective of their own world. So she asked that because, as a teenager, it was startling in perhaps an unpleasant way that a dad would just go through the daughter's clothes and put them on a stranger (well, have them put on a stranger, if she really is a stranger to Rosie like she says). Anyway, that teenager respect my stuff thing, it's almost like one of the teenager rules, lol!

Oh, at the end, I bet he wished he could do something about her going off with Cy . . . hell, I'd like to take a bat to the guy (sorry) and I'm not a violent person. Couldn't even defend myself the times I was beat up right at that age; I tried to throw punches, but my hands and arms wouldn't obey me and just waved around in front of me.

So you see, I'm not a violent person. I think Paul wants to protect her, who wouldn't, but I think that he's a little . . . . slightly less detached than he could be, not that he's REALLY inappropriate or anything, but the paternal-ness that seems to be missing with his own kids shows up here; perhaps he feels more . . . . like he can, there, because nurturing, in a therapist's way, is healing. It's . . . . easy to, there, in his role, but in his house (I was going to say home, but it "feels" to me like his office is more his home than his whole rest of the house is (although part of that may be attributed to the artifice/limits/not exactly gimmick but constraints of the way the show is mostly the therapy sessions, mostly in the office, etc. Still, it may be partly that, but partly what I said above.

Eeek, Dinah, I guess I AM having a Novel experience (ha ha . . . . I'm beginning to think all my jokes are stupid now though.)

Lots in this episode. I really like Sophie, although because of that I suspect the writers will throw in some supposedly unlikeable stuff . . . . but I remember how mixed up I was then (heck, I am now, still, lol, partly because I didn't get help then, didn't know how to grow, going forward.)

Ah, shoot. It's funny what of ourselves we see in shows and movies. Kinda like my Cloverfield reference the other day, and Roy and the floorboards, etc. I think perhaps that reflects (like you want to know lol) my unsureness about my psychiatrist, since I was so burned by the last one and yet he DID help me in some profound and unexpected ways, and when we were on the same page, it was a . . . marvelous team-up, working together. I guess that made the rest of it all the worse . . . .

Sorry Roy! I guess I transferred my psychiatrist fears, worries, and experiences onto you.

Like I said, I'd rather have a bank transfer, thank you. Hee hee.

Gah. I don't know whether to like him or to absolutely not (classic B&W, splitting, what have you (I'm afraid of being judged and stereotyped when I mention splitting though)).

GAH again. Interesting show. I'm going to go apply my word for the month (actually it's two).

See ya later!

Anonymous said...

I like your comment about tv viewer transference and I think it extends beyond blogging about shows. I certainly know that there are characters in some tv shows that I care about deeply such as the Fishers in Six Feet Under and the Sopranos. Come to think about it, all these shows are about families. Now I wonder what that means …

mingalls said...

Sarebear- If I remember correctly, Sophie said the crazy woman yelled at her after her first accident- on the motorbike. It was after the second accident (on a bicycle, I presume...) that she said there was no sound.

...I could be wrong. I usually watch these in the middle of the night and I'm chronically sleep deprived...

Sarebear said...

doh! I think you are right. Easy to mix up though.

I'm sorry if I wrote so much that no one else wants to. I guess we'll see tomorrow.

Sarebear said...

Um, and in the pic in this post? "Paul" is too airbrushed/photoshopped/smoothed.

As "real" or just plain . . . not down to earth, not primal, what's the word I'm looking for . . . as much as you can see in his face, in the show, they take away from that by air-brushing him too much on that promotional pic; makes him look fake and unreal, like a mannequin.

Anonymous said...

No, I did liken him to a bowl of oatmeal, but I said that the house was not hideous, rather brogeous, which would popularly be spelt broguish to go with his brogue, but for the fact that it is not a popular word. I wanted to say that the ofice, rather than hideous, reflected his rumpliness, and on american tv and movies we are used to seeing everything ab fab, chic,and not so much lived in. Stainless steel fridges but no one cooks.

Anonymous said...

Proles, Dinah? We are proles? At least we know the role we have been assigned.

NeoNurseChic said...

I like Sophie's character the best as well. I think it's the relate-ability that I feel from when I was that age, however. I really like how Paul brought up the comment about someone breaking the rules in Sophie's life and therefore she was testing him when she said she needed help with the clothes. I thought that was right on and a good way to put it.

Take care,
Carrie :)

DrivingMissMolly said...

Testing...one-two-three...don't we all test our shrinks? Sometimes I've tested without knowing I've done it until later.

Not everything about therapy takes place in that office. I, and I assume everyone, constantly hash and rehash conversations, comments, facial expressions, *everything* that went on in the session(s). It's like my psychiatrist said..."I'm in your head now and that's good."

Last night as I got caught up on Sophie's sessions I reflected that perhaps I should NOT watch the show because it might not be good for me and my therapy and relationship(s) with Therapist and Psychiatrist. Somehow I feel this show could be dangerous to me.

I recall that I read that psychiatrists/therapists of yore would discourage people from discussing their therapy with anyone and avoiding any literature associated with the subject. What would they say about this show? Tsk Tsk.

Sare, I'm sure Kate got the clothes. I'm sure Paul would have no idea what to get or where it was or, daresay, perhaps even where Rosie's room is...

Anon 1...good point. I finally realized Paul has a "theme," a nautical one with the ships and the wave machine. Also, photography was a hobbyy (*was* because he no longer does it much or at all since the photography books have been relegated to the unreachable space above his work related book filled shelves). I bet all those frames everywhere, including the bathroom, are his photographs.

Anon 2--Good one! Yes, the comment about the use of "psychobabble" made me think that too...

Did anyone catch that Sophie said that she and her mother had fought--"for once"--and Sophie smiled a tiny bit as she said it?

Sare, Paul is also airbrushed on the website, but he is so much craggier in readl life.

Dinah, I agree with you that the more I know Paul, the less I like him, especially the way he shuts out his wife. Being shut out is the reason I am divorced now.
Seeing someone like that makes you want to "fix" them, just like Laura said, to "get his heart pumping" again.

I wonder how he prepared for the role, Gabriel Byrne. He has it DOWN, in my opinion. He has the sofy, non judgemental voice, the gesturing hands, the wedding ring twist of my shrink, the hands cradling his face, the making his hands into a tent, the raised eyebrow, the meaningful look.

Maybe he's not so hot, but I have always been attracted to older men, and grey hair is so sexy.

Lily

Anonymous said...

anon 1 and anon 2 here , and by proles i was referring to Dinah's husband's remark, which she quoted. not feeling slighted ,merely wondering what the shrinks and their families might imagine themselves to be if we, the reading masses, are the proletariat, in whatever sense of the word you wish to use it. i would say that there is a pretty diverse bunch reading. i guess it is as Paul said when he said that if his patients knew what he thought about them they would run for the hills.

Anonymous said...

Dinah,

I was wondering about Rosie, myself. Also, according to the website, he has THREE children. I believe it is two sons and a daughter. Has the other son been mentioned AT ALL?

Lily

Anonymous said...

Ian. That's his name. Ian. He's the eldest.

Lily

NeoNurseChic said...

Dinah!

OT but I have a story for you. Remember your cell phone in the washer story? I just was pulling my clothes out of the dryer, and I had thrown a sweatshirt in that I was wearing today along with the last 3+ weeks of laundry that had piled up. Well - apparently I had thrown my chapstick in the dryer, but guess what else??? My blue tooth headset for my cell!!! ACK! It went through the washer AND the dryer... And needless to say, it doesn't work any longer!

I am actually going to post on my blog later tonight because I have a funny laundry war story to tell that rivals a laundry war story I told on my old blog.

I can't believe I wrecked the blue tooth! So funny!

Anyway - just thought I'd share!
Carrie

Sarebear said...

I actually felt threatened by a Lost episode, once. Psychologically threatened. I think it had to do with the fact that we hadn't seen the Others yet, just their feet tramping through the jungle, were told they were like animals, and they could come at any time, had all the power to come take you, but especially that they were after children.

The next episode the threat went away, because some of the "unknown" was shown, but it was the unknown, and the terrible, terrible power it had, and presumed purpose, that really got inside of me.

If you feel like the show isn't a good idea, I'd not watch, or let some time and episodes pass and pick up one or two again and see how you feel, if that's what you want to do.

My threatened feeling was extremely surprising to me; it's JUST a tv show I said (albeit one not set in a mental health setting). But my feelings were real, and I 'spose fodder for therapy. I mentioned it in passing as I went to something more immediate that week, but I feel there's something there to get into at some point.

I go by a thing of, well, I TRY to, if I feel like something is just . . . . somehow, in the back of my mind or somehow feels like it could lead somewhere not good, then think about why, and figure it if it's something to keep or not.

It's all very individual of course, that's just an experience I had, if it helps. (Not that I'm recommending what I did; I'm recommending the process of examining it and deciding etc., plus gut feelings can be right on - I hope you are ok!)