Ok I know it was hard enough to lose Bobby and Sil in 20 short minutes let alone think about the possibility that talk therapy may not help psychopaths or anyone, but it’s an issue that needs to be addressed. I have to admit it has taken me a couple of days to even start processing what happened Sunday night and there’s a lot that happened, but I am only going to focus on Tony being a psychopath. It seems there has been enough outrage about his therapist Dr. Melfi Leaving him, and the unethical leaking of who she was treating at a therapists’ dinner by an even more disturbed therapist, so I’ll leave that alone.For the past couple of episodes Tony’s therapist has been hearing from another therapist that studies show talk therapy doesn’t help psychopaths and that it indeed will only give them an opportunity to test their manipulative skills on someone else and in some ways reinforce their psychopathic behavior. Now we have to keep in mind that the Sopranos aren’t real people. However, a quick Google search did turn up that the study that is quoted on the show is real, which leads to an interesting question.
Anyone who watches the Sopranos for a couple of episodes can clearly see that Tony is emotional both in and out of therapy. The aspects that he identifies in therapy are things that he talks about outside of therapy and becomes more aware of. I would never say becoming aware of them leads to him making efforts to change anything that happened to him, but that isn’t different from a large majority of people who go to therapists. In my opinion a psychopath and I think I have only met one (and I hope she doesn’t remember me or isn’t reading this) doesn’t necessarily go through all of the effort to cry and talk and go to a therapist to locate where these thoughts come from only to test out more of their psychopathic side. I mean it’s definitely possible for some people to do, but I don’t see the psychopathic qualities in Tony. I may be just like the rest of millions of people in this country, especially guys, who have fallen into the trap of glorifying gangsters and viewing what they do more as a job that’s part of a disturbed side of life rather than psychopaths, but to be honest Tony has done more work in therapy than most people I know! He shows regret, he feels pain, he expresses concern for others and when he isn’t in the mob job mode does breakdown, which to me isn’t “normal” psychopathic behavior. If we examine Tony’s past for a brief second he isn’t much different from a kid raised by a father who is in a gang and doesn’t know a way to get out, so he constantly fights, and possibly kills as a part of the nurture/nature problem. Can that lead to being a psychopath? Sure. But again it’s the feelings Tony shows that lead me to believe this may be more of a “job” and other environmental factors like power contributing to making his behavior acceptable rather than him simply being a psychopath. Maybe he has manipulated me!
My whole problem with his therapist deciding to no longer see him based on a study that said talk therapy may only reinforce psychopathic behavior is that I am not convinced he is one. And I don’t think his therapist necessarily was either. When anyone hears their therapist is refusing to see them it can lead to further isolation and result in even more dire circumstances. I think that is what was going on in his therapist’s mind when she closed the door on Tony. The fear that cutting him off would cause him to do more drastic things and the larger fear that maybe the years of all the talking and her hard work didn’t do anything were written all over her face. So I am sure everyone had thoughts as they were watching his therapist close the door on him after all of these years and I want to know do you think Tony is a psychopath and if you do what are your thoughts on all of his talk therapy and his therapist leaving him?
