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‘I don't think I can help you’
David Chase, the creator of the most talked about TV series ever, decided to end The Sopranos when he and other Sopranos writers attended a psychiatric conference about Yochelson and Samenow's work (1976) on the criminal personality. They asked attendees at the conference to analyse Tony's condition and were told by Nancy Duggan, a forensic psychologist, that Dr Melfi's brand of therapy, far from helping her patient, might be making his behaviour worse. She argued that talking therapy for sociopaths is a bad idea, because it allows them to justify their actions and keep on doing them. In response to this, David Chase said, ‘It blew my mind as soon as we heard it. I thought, well, that's got to be the end of the show’ (Martin, 2006, p. 110).
As commercial as it is, The Sopranos is a rich tapestry of complicated human interactions. It has left us, the viewers, with many quandaries; Dr Melfi's abandonment of her patient has left many therapists reporting patients anxious to discuss with them the ethics of professional abandonment. It also raises other questions: can one get worse through therapy? Is there such thing as a criminal personality, and where is the hope?
Here is a brief description of the criminal personality, written by Yochelson and Samenow (1976):
We have not seen a criminal who has truly regarded himself as evil or for that matter, as a criminal. Rather, the criminal views himself not only as a good person, but as more moral and righteous than others. He is kind to babies, loves animals, and is helpful to elderly people and the disabled. He believes in God.
Page 230He not only appreciates the aesthetic production of others, but is artistically creative himself. As long as he retains his good opinion of himself, he assumes that he has a kind of license to commit arrestable acts, none of which he thinks he has to justify. If he is held accountable by others, he regards himself as being wronged,