Whaile I hope I am not a sociopath, I was once dropped like a hot potato by a "therapist," who insisted on describing this as a "termination," as if she was Terminator II. I can attest that it is extremely damaging.
--- Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:
> I wondered if that study Melfi read was real. Turns
> out it is:
>
>
>
> Real-Life Shrinks Debate New `Sopranos'
>
> By JOCELYN NOVECK
> The Associated Press
> Wednesday, June 6, 2007; 8:22 AM
>
> NEW YORK -- Therapists, we've long known, are
> among the biggest fans of "The Sopranos."
>
> So pleased were they with the credible therapy
> scenes between Tony Soprano, pop culture's most
> famous mobster/patient, and the appealing Dr.
> Jennifer Melfi, played by Lorraine Bracco, that
> the American Psychoanalytical Association once
> gave the show and Bracco an award.
>
> But professionally speaking, they could only
> scratch their heads at the latest developments on
> HBO's hit drama, which aired its penultimate episode
> last weekend.
>
> Just as Tony Soprano's life seemed to be
> imploding with dangerous speed _ in short, just
> when he needed some really good therapy _ Melfi
> and her own therapist made some highly questionable
> moves.
>
> Not only therapists were distressed. Some
> patients were actually furious when they showed
> up for appointments this week, said one New York
> psychoanalyst.
>
> "You wouldn't believe the outrage I am hearing,"
> said Dr. Arnold Richards, who'd missed the
> episode, but was filled in by his patients. He
> was talking about a serious ethical lapse by
> Elliot Kupferberg, played by Peter Bogdanovich,
> at a dinner party full of therapists. Across the
> crowded table, the character callously revealed _
> over Melfi's protests _ the identity of her star
> patient.
>
> "Mind-boggling," pronounced Richards. "I do not
> recall ever being told the name of a patient in
> treatment."
>
> Colleagues agreed. "That dinner party was just
> very upsetting to me," said Dr. Joseph Annibali,
> a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in McLean, Va.
> "What he did was outrageous. He's never had
> control of himself, and this just fits in with
> that."
>
> Why did Kupferberg commit such a sin? He didn't
> think Melfi should be treating Tony, whom he
> considered a manipulative psychopath. Be that as
> it may, his disclosure was "a very egregious
> ethical violation," said Dr. Jan Van Schaik,
> chair of the Ethics Committee at the Wisconsin
> Psychoanalytic Institute.
>
> "A patient needs to know that what gets said in
> the doctor's office stays there," said Van
> Schaik, who's never witnessed such a violation.
> "I've been at gatherings where people talk about
> patients in a more disguised form. Even that can
> be inappropriate. A good therapist should do the
> best they can to protect the anonymity of patients."
>
> It's a shame, Van Schaik added, because "prior to
> Sunday's episode, 'The Sopranos' was the best
> portrayal in the popular media of a
> therapist-patient relationship." Annibali agreed:
> "We're so used to seeing therapists presented as
> incompetent hacks. Or as people who are more
> disturbed than their patients!"
>
> What's been nice about Melfi, the Virginia
> therapist explained, is that she's a complex and
> caring figure _ she's not ideal, but she tries to
> help Tony even as she struggles with the idea of
> treating him.
>
> That is, until this last episode, when she ...
> dumped him.
>
> "We're making progress," Tony protested,
> genuinely shocked. "It's been seven years!" But
> Melfi had reluctantly read a study, brought to
> her attention by Kupferberg, claiming that
> therapy doesn't actually help sociopaths _ it
> further enables their bad behavior by sharpening
> their manipulative skills. Demoralized,
> guilt-ridden and almost speechless with
> hostility, Melfi literally showed Tony the door.
>
> A tidbit that had some therapists buzzing this
> week: it turns out the study is a real one _
> albeit hardly new _ from authors Samuel Yochelson
> and Stanton Samenow, psychiatrists specializing
> in the criminal mind. But the way the fictional
> Melfi shoved aside her patient was anything but
> real, therapists said.
>
> "You don't just drop a patient like a hot potato,
> even if you conclude they aren't responding to
> therapy," Annibali protested. "She should have taken
> several months to do it."
>
> For Richards, the development just didn't ring
> true. After seven years, "only NOW she figures
> this out? My sense is that there was some
> narrative purpose for (series creator David) Chase
> to end this relationship."
>
> As in the fact that there's only an hour left to
> the entire story? That Tony's life is crashing
> down around him, and one by one, by death or
> rejection or his own murderous hand, he appears
> destined to lose everyone close to him?
>
> Maybe. But Annibali said he'd heard that Bracco
> may be appearing in the final episode next
> Sunday. Which means there may still be time to
> reverse her professional missteps.
>
> "My hope," Annibali said, "is that she and Tony will
> get together again."
>
> But for one certified expert on both therapy AND
> "The Sopranos," that wouldn't make sense,
> dramatically speaking. Around halfway through the
> show's run, Tony's therapy started failing, said
> Dr. Glen Gabbard, professor at the Baylor College
> of Medicine in Houston and author of "The Psychology
> of The Sopranos."
>
> Perhaps it was because Chase himself went through
> years of therapy, and has publicly expressed
> ambivalence about its usefulness. In any case, at
> the busy psychiatry clinic where Gabbard works,
> the talk this week is about how Melfi should have
> ended things with Tony years ago.
>
> "The therapy had to end," Gabbard said. "It was
> getting more and more futile.
>
> "He's just not getting any better."
> © 2007 The Associated Press
>
>
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