"In Treatment"

I've been meticulously following and recording a program on HBO called "In Treatment." It is an adaptation of an Israeli TV series called "Be'Tipul." It is about a psychiatrist and five of his patients. It is broadcast in half-hour segments for five days a week, and after today it will be in the 7th of 9 weeks.

Each of four of the patients has the same day of each week devoted to him or her, except that the Thursdays are for a married couple. Then on Fridays the patient is the psychiatrist himself, played by the very able Peter Gabriel, most vividly seen in recent years in the subtle yet hard-boiled crime drama, "The Usual Suspects." His character subjects himself in turn to therapy given by a former colleague, played by Diane Wiest. And Gabriel's character certainly needs it, given his patients and also his unfaithful and (as yet) unapologetic wife, portrayed with all the necessary venom by Michelle Forbes.

Peter Gabriel is doing such a great job that if he has gotten into the role even half as much as he obviously appears to be doing, by now it's a wonder that he isn't a nervous wreck himself. .I know that, fascinating as the show is, it has not done wonders for me.

At first I asked myself, if this is what treating minds is like, why had I never given any consideration to becoming a psychiatrist? All these patients seem to have the same thought, because without exception they are quick to lash out at the therapist with biting remarks about what he is supposed to be doing. I could engage in long periods of discussions with people, and one-to-one is the situation I like best. I would have no problem with letting them do most of the talking, because almost always I do that anyway. I'm good at asking questions, especially mildly irritating ones, and I could even teach myself to ask over and over how the patients feel about things, instead of letting loose with any conclusions of my own.

But after about three weeks I completely changed my mind. No, hell no, I could never do it, if I had patients like those. I have a lot of tolerance, but these people would have burst through my limits, and then I would've been in serious trouble.

Though I've appreciated the head-on verbal duels that Monday's extremely sexy (in a quiet way) female doctor has had with the Gabriel character, I have difficulties with her because, after revealing that she has fallen in love with the pyschiatrist and unequivocally wants him, she spends too much time trying to tempt him and to stir up jealousy in him. I don't think it's cool of her to do that when she can see how desperately he is trying to resist and so preserve the sanctity of his marriage and his profession. She does this by being far more explicit in the details of her various sexual misadventures than the situation calls for, making me wonder if it isn't all done to give the show the "juicy" touches of which HBO and the big wide world are so fond..

Things get worse on Tuesdays, because that day belongs to a topgun Navy pilot who has no redeeming features at all. Instead he is ultra-aggressive, callous, nasty, egoistic, spiteful, cruel, assuming, boastful, insensitive -- have I left anything out? The psychiatrist tells his therapist that he loves all his patients, which must include this guy. But how can that be?

Exactly the same goes for Wednesday's teenage gymnast. Although their demographics are very different she shares most of the Navy pilot's unredeeming traits, though it is easier to figure out the root of her trouble. It stems from an absymal lack of simple home training. She has attempted suicide and seems ready to use that as a weapon against the psychiatrist and her long-suffering mother. As a result, that threat is always hanging over everything. I know exactly what that's like and how terrifying it is, and in my opinion there can be nothing at all that excuses it.

And it's thumbs down on Thursday's married couple, too, because the husband is another-in-your face baboon butt who suffers from a complete inability to think before he speaks, while the stuff that his mind suggests for him to say is almost invariably sharp and cutting. I have reservations about his wife, too, because she obviously showed, in spite of her appearance, a complete lack of good taste by marrying him. But maybe that is more a sign of miscasting -- or that I like her much more than I'm letting on. I admit that I study her closer than I do any of the other characters, engrossed in trying to figure out just what it is about her that makes her look so exceptionally classy. But I'm confusing the character with the actress. I know.

Meanwhile, to get back at him for being inattentive to her or whatever, the psychiatrist's wife suddenly announces that she is going off to Rome for a week to make whoopee with another man. And when she returns, she tries to cover herself by adopting that time-honored tactic of going on the offensive when she finds out that her husband has indeed come under the spell of the sexy young doctor lady, though, unlike the case of the wife, things there have not yet reached the point of being anything physical.

I guess I could be accused being judgmental, which these days I often hear being spoken of as if it is an enormous no-no. Yet over and over again, a judgment from the psychiatrist is exactly what all the patients desperately ask of him, and he nearly always refrains. Obviously that is a big part of the "treatment." Does this mean that the ability to fight off the temptation to deliver verdicts goes a long way toward getting a degree in the profession?. But then, how can that therapy work if very little is actually decided?

At some risk to my own equilibrium but with great interest, I'm waiting to see whether in the three weeks that are left "In Treatment" will provide some answers, or whether the cure is all a matter of how I feel about things.