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by levinpsy
Thanks for the responses...
Yes, I agree, Krakower, Tony is still lacking in empathy and he has not progressed in this area with Melfi. But the 'study' would have us believe this is because Tony's a criminal or a sociopath and he would not make progress no matter who his therapist was.
I think this is false and Chase on some level knows it. Imagine another therapist, one less vulnerable to Tony's charms and manipulations, one less traumatized and scared herself, one with a much better therapist/supervisor of her own. I believe that therapist could have helped Tony develop empathy by saying the following at various times over the course of the therapy:
"Of course you're depressed, you can't protect your beloved family just like you were not protected by your own parents...you are in a truly impossible spot and always have been...this is enough to depress anyone...and it's also enough to make you rightfully furious...you were set up for this by your parents...they essentially got away with murder, and now you have to pick up the pieces."
"Of course you're involved in criminal activity...this is not because you're bad or a criminal, it's because it was the only choice offered to you by your parents, and once you got in, you couldn't leave...it's not your fault."
"Of course you feel like you can't have empathy or compassion for yourself or others...this kind of feeling was not permitted by your parents or by your current business...the penalty for feeling empathy for a mob boss is often death."
"Of course you feel trapped...what an impossible spot you are in."
"Of course you're afraid to get close to your wife, in your business you could lose her any day."
"Of course you're mad at AJ, he's in the same impossible spot as you are and you can't protect him...he reminds you of yourself and it's too painful so you push him away."
Anyway, my guess is that Chase's own therapy was incomplete and unsatisfying, and the show can be read as his way of saying to his therapist and the mental health profession, "Stop the bullshit intellectual 'studies' and theories and start empathizing with your patients, ALL your patients, rich, poor, in jail and out...if you can do that, maybe there'd be a few less Tony Sopranos in the world." For psychologists to have abandoned 'sociopaths' as unworkable is folly, and my hope (guess?) is that Chase feels the same way. IMHO, we just haven't tried TRULY empathizing with the Tony Sopranos of
the world yet, and until we do, we will all be that much worse off.