The Treatment, New Yorker Films Release, 2006.

At the very end of Portnoy's Complaint, after the hero (or anti-hero) finishes his narrative of misadventures, a new voice is heard saying “So, now vee may perhaps to begin?” The reader realizes that Portnoy has been relating his life story to a psychoanalyst who does not speak until the last page. In The Treatment (published in 1998 and which might be called Portnoy volume 2), the analyst has begun to speak and does so with a vengeance. Dr. Morales is a Cuban, Catholic orthodox Freudian analyst who talks and talks and talks. His communications consist mainly of aggrandizement of himself or of belittling his patient, Jake Singer, the book's hero and narrator. Morales also has a penchant for expressing his opinions in sexual metaphors, spoken in heavily accented English. An example which can be seen as paradigmatic is when Jake recounts his asserting himself, Morales replies “At last the penis goes inside the vagina.” In return, Jake gets even by constantly correcting Morales' pronunciation, making up tantalizing stories and then admitting he wanted to lead Morales astray, or by omitting important events that occur during the analysis. Yet for all of his pugnacious bantering, Morales appears dedicated to his craft and to care genuinely for Jake's welfare. Although Jake terminates treatment, these thrice weekly skirmishes seem to have worked as Jake improves during the course of the book.

Morales, while a preposterous caricature, is easily the most interesting character in the book and the pages where he appears are funny and rewarding. A particular touching scene is at the end when Jake pays Morales a visit after some time has passed. Morales now practices in a poor neighborhood and his office is fairly shabby; it is clear that he has fallen on hard times as his form of orthodox analysis is less in demand. Yet, he is still boisterous and self-aggrandizing as ever. He insists that he is still