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The Sopranos’ Usage of Therapy as a Narrative Device

Introduction

On January 10, 1999, the landscape of HBO, and possibly all of television, was about to change. Long time television veteran (born David DeCesare) from The Rockford Files, , and Almost Grown was premiering his next television series (Sepinwall 33). After six seasons of shows, capturing two Emmys for outstanding drama series along the way, cemented itself as one of the, if not the, greatest television drama ever created. At the center of it all was , who played the leading role of , a capo in the Italian mafia. By the end of the series, Gandolfini himself earned three outstanding lead actor in a drama series awards. While the thing that initially drew people to Tony Soprano was his mafia background and his tendency for violence and infidelity, an element of the show that is essential to the series was Soprano's appointments with his therapist, Dr. , played by . These scenes were one of the staples of the series, and functioned as a critical narrative device. These sessions were depicted weekly on the show, and served as the revealing of Tony’s internal thoughts, as opposed to the “voice of god” that would be used in a narrator, or some other voiceover technique. This allows the audience inside the head of Tony Soprano, and he is able to debate his thoughts with Dr. Melfi, even if he sometimes ends up leaving the session in a rage and breaking a glass table in her office. It is in Dr. Melfi’s office that we see the real Tony Soprano, someone damaged and broken by his depression, who needs help. Ideally, someone like Tony Soprano should have it all: He has the wife, two kids, and house that American society tells us to desire, but his sessions with Melfi are his chance to escape all of that and figure out who he really is.

To understand the role therapy had in the The Sopranos, I will look back at the very beginning of the show, before it was even created. David Chase's own life was an important factor in the decision to have Tony Soprano see a therapist, as Chase himself turned to one. Next, there will be an analysis of the show's main therapeutic relationship between Dr. Melfi and Tony Soprano, pointing out pivotal episodes and meetings, as at times, their business relationship finds its way outside of the four walls of Dr. Melfi's office. After that, I will examine how some of the show's other characters are influenced by Soprano's decision to go to therapy after seeing the progress he has made as their own problems begin to arise, like Tony Soprano’s wife.

Tony Soprano and Dr. Jennifer Melfi

The series opens with Tony Soprano sitting in a waiting room, staring at a figure of a naked woman. He is then invited into the office by Dr. Melfi, who asks him about his recent panic attacks. Tony’s initial reluctance is evident in his denial that he even had a panic attack, claiming that it is “impossible for him to talk to a psychiatrist,” and that he “can’t talk to [Melfi] about his personal life” (“The Sopranos”). While privacy is paramount to psychotherapy, in this very first session Dr. Melfi interrupts Soprano at one point to discuss some ethical ground rules, 2 potentially compromising that privacy (Gabbard 48). When agreeing to this appointment, Dr. Melfi already has prior knowledge of who Tony Soprano is from Dr. Cusamano, the physician, as well as their next door neighbor. Melfi mentions to Tony Soprano that if she was to hear “that let’s say…a murder was to take place, not that I’m saying it would, but if,” she would have to report it to the authorities (“The Sopranos”). Soprano continues to tell his story about meeting with a man for ‘coffee’ who owed him money, when in actuality Tony Soprano finds this man on the street and proceeds to chase after him, ultimately running this man over with a car alongside his nephew (). This watering down of the truth is used several times by the writing staff throughout the series to humorous detail, as we are able to see what is really going on in Tony Soprano’s life, with Dr. Melfi only to ponder what he is really talking about (Gabbard 49). This scene continues on for the next ten minutes or so, mostly serving as exposition for introducing new characters until Soprano’s panic attack finally happens. He watches some ducks away in his backyard, and then keels over in pain. Soprano nurtured the ducks, much like his own family, who is also flying away from him. Back in the office, Soprano even tries to deflect the notion of his depression by making a pass at Dr. Melfi, but asking “what part of the boot” she is from when he sees that her name is Italian (“The Sopranos”). Melfi holds firm and continues to press on about Soprano’s anxiety and potential depression. Rather than answer her question honestly and admit defeat, he decides to stand up and walk out of the room. During this scene, Soprano’s voice does function as a voice of god while the audience sees flashbacks, but it is common practice for a series to make changes after the , and this technique for the most part goes away.

This first scene, lasting almost half of the entire pilot episode, sets the tone for the relationship between Soprano and Melfi. While Soprano is angry about the whole concept of going to therapy as it is opposed to the Mafia’s code of silence, or Omertà, he slowly warms up to the therapy as the end of the first season approaches (Vincent 123). Earlier in that season, Tony Soprano’s Uncle Junior gets word that Tony is seeing a therapist, and shares that information to Livia Soprano, Tony’s mother. In the episode “” (Season 1, episode 11) Junior goes to meet Livia at her nursing home, and decides something needs to be done about Tony, as is technically the boss of the family. In the next episode, “,” Tony visits Dr. Melfi, but looks like a completely different person. He isn’t very well put together like the Tony Soprano we are used to. He isn’t as dressed up as well as we expect, with Soprano only wearing a golf shirt, with some of the buttons undone. We also see that he hasn’t shaved, and his stubble is present. Tony Soprano’s gusto is gone, saying he isn’t “a husband to his wife, a father to his kids, and a friend to his friends” (“Isabella”). Before his next appointment with Dr. Melfi, Soprano is awoken from his depression when his life is threatened, due to an attack on Tony by Uncle Junior’s hired guns. The music he awakes to cuts off once Soprano is able to process what is happening, and the scene jumps into real time. He survives the attack, and seems to be back to his old self. That night, Dr. Melfi and Tony Soprano have an impromptu meeting in either an empty parking lot or the middle of nowhere. This is likely against protocol for a normal client, but Melfi clearly regards Tony Soprano as not just another 3 client. To her, this relationship is exciting and unique. “She is fascinated by her celebrity ‘bad boy’ and she must be careful not to collude with his wish to transform the therapy into flirtatious bantering or worse“(Gabbard 50). In this moment, Melfi is in control of the session. Soprano has dropped the flirtatious act, and has become serious, partially due to the aftermath of the attempt on his life. He says that “When I was depressed, I said I didn’t wanna live… Well, I’ll tell you something… I didn’t wanna die. Every fucking particle of my being was fighting to live.”(“Isabella”). Now that Tony Soprano has been reinvigorated with life, his next priority is to figure out who is behind the attack, but Melfi seems to have it figured out first.

In their first meeting in the next episode, Melfi has put the pieces together of the murder attempt, Tony Soprano’s visions of Isabella being the loving and protective mother to her baby Antonio, and Livia’s recent “memory loss.” Melfi tells Soprano that “Your subconscious was shouting something at you. On the day before the shooting, you said to me that she kept going on yet again about news stories of mothers throwing their babies out of windows,” implying that his mother had a part in the murder attempt (“I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano”). After that Tony Soprano is outraged, and begins to sway anxiously in his chair as Melfi provides more evidence for her case, including diagnosing Livia with borderline personality disorder. Within a minute, Tony has had enough. He stands up, flips over the glass pane on Melfi’s table, and charges toward her. At this point, Tony Soprano declares their relationship in therapy finished, while threatening to break “her face into fifty thousand fucking pieces” (“I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano”).

When Soprano learns later that Melfi’s interpretation was correct, he returns to her office and seeks forgiveness. A humbled Tony Soprano sits in his usual chair, while the empowered Dr. Melfi sits far way at the desk instead of the chair across from him, like a schoolteacher talking down to one of her students. Now that Soprano knows the truth, he is much more willing to speak about the matter. Tony Soprano tells Melfi that one of the reasons his family tried to kill him was the fact that he was visiting Melfi’s office, and that she is in fact in danger. Melfi argues against the possibility of running away, as she cannot leave the rest of her patients, especially some who are suicidal. She soon realizes that one of her ethical ground rules is going to be broken as Soprano tells Melfi that he is going to deal with whoever is responsible. In shock, Dr. Melfi takes off her glasses, and begins to recoil in fear, as she knows Soprano is very serious. The glasses also represent Melfi’s ability to read Tony Soprano, and when the glasses come off she is more vulnerable. Throughout the entire series, they only come off in this moment, a third season episode in which Dr. Melfi is sexually assaulted, and in the fifth season when she starts to have erotic dreams about Tony Soprano (Plourde 73). Melfi ultimately takes Soprano’s advice and when he visits her office at the end of the episode, Soprano is met by a janitor saying that Dr. Melfi has gone on vacation. She begins the second season of the show working out of a hotel, and Tony Soprano is her patient no longer, at least for the time being.

After some convincing, Melfi allows Soprano to be her patient once again, and everything seems to go back to normal in the therapy office. There are some real breakthroughs 4 once Livia, Tony’s mother, dies. Soprano remembers one of his very first panic attacks from when he was a young boy, when he was in Satriale’s butcher shop with his father at the age of eleven. Tony Soprano was witness to his father cutting the thumb off of the shop’s owner, Mr. Satriale, and when his mother Livia was cutting the roast that night, he passed out. With this information, Dr. Melfi is able to take another step with her approach to treatment of Soprano, but he is not “convinced of the value of sharing this memory and on more than one occasion downplays the importance of the incident” (Vincent 131).This revelation builds toward one of the most Dr. Melfi-centric episodes, which is titled “Employee of the Month” (Season 3, Episode 4), in which Dr. Melfi is attacked in the parking garage at her office and sexually assaulted by an unknown assailant. Earlier that day, Dr. Melfi is ready to send Soprano off to a behavior modification therapist, ending their relationship once again, but that possibility soon changes. In the aftermath of her rape, Dr. Melfi cancels her next immediate appointments with her patients. The next day, Melfi finds out that the suspect of her rape charge has been released because of a snafu at the police station. Later in the episode, Melfi does eventually return to the office and sees Soprano. As mentioned before, Melfi’s glasses are off, indicating her vulnerability, but it is also evident given her physical condition. Dr. Melfi is using a cane to walk and when she accidentally drops it after sitting into her chair, she gets flustered by the sound it makes. As the session progresses, it is evident Melfi is not herself, but otherwise the session is fairly normal.

In a later scene, Dr. Melfi is in her office at night sitting at her desk, but the environment is out of place. We cut to the scene, and immediately the camera is zooming in on her, as we hear the sounds of footsteps and opening of a car door, just like the sounds we heard earlier as Melfi was walking through the parking garage. Upon further inspection, we see that Melfi is also in the same outfit that she wore that day. We cut to a sign on her door that says “Danger: High Voltage”, and Melfi opens the doors to see another version of herself in the very same office. This office has an Acme Cola vending machine in it, and Melfi here is paying for that cola with elbow macaroni. Melfi’s hand gets stuck when she is trying to get the soda out, and this alerts her presence there to a Rottweiler dog who starts to bark at her, and her rapist. He begins to assault Melfi again, but the dog defends her, and then we quickly cut out of the scene to Melfi opening her eyes in bed. The entire sequence was a dream. In the next scene, Dr. Melfi is talking with her own therapist trying to understand the dream, and Melfi has a realization. “A Rottweiler, Elliot, big head, massive shoulders, direct descendant of the dog used by the Roman armies to guard their camps… Who could I sic on that son of a bitch to tear him to shreds?” (“Employee of the Month”), She has put two and two together and decided that the Rottweiler is Tony Soprano, and just knowing that she could have the rapist killed at the drop of a hat makes her happy. In their final meeting of the episode, Melfi, who is still without her glasses, finally breaks down in front of Soprano. He agrees to go to the behavioral therapist, but Melfi will not allow it. It is possible that “her experience and frustration have given her a visceral understanding of him. Or she may need to stay connected to his power, for assurance if not deployment” (Yacowar 138). The tables have turned in the relationship, and Tony is the one consoling and helping Dr. Melfi. Tony then asks her if she wants to say something. We then cut to a close up of Melfi’s face, where she 5 swallows, but successfully remains steadfast and replies with a simple “no.” The episode then cuts to black and runs the credits.

The events that occurred in “Employee of the Month” were some of the most controversial in the series. Gabbard claims that the audience was one hundred percent behind Melfi, to the point that it felt like “colleagues of [his] were saying that it had happened to them or a friend.” He also added that “they were dying for Melfi to use her transference power over Tony to have him rub out the rapist” (64). David Chase himself was not very fond of giving the people what they wanted, and at times tried to avoid it. He weighed in on this issue by saying “I felt it way more interesting [, but the audience] didn’t,” and adding “I like mystery. I like allusion. A lot of times, I prefer that to knowing what happened” (Sepinwall 47). Chase was aware that his show was something more than a mob show when he created it, and not giving the audience the simple and violent solution was just another example of Chase’s desire to challenge his audience. It was possible that that demand could have been satisfied, as “the original story line had Tony arranging to have the rapist killed. However, the writers decided… that it would have not been in Jennifer’s character to exploit the transference relationship to place her own needs above those of her patient” (Gabbard 65).

As the show moves into season five, there is some indication of the psychological growth of Tony Soprano. His panic attacks have subsided, but at this point, why is Soprano still in therapy? The notion of him going to a behavior modification therapist is gone, and the sessions with Dr. Melfi were “no longer useful as anything but a break in Tony’s day—or, worse, a chance for him to use Melfi as an unwitting tool, letting him plan strategy” (Sepinwall 48). One of Soprano’s oldest friends (also cousin) reemerges. Tony Blundetto () is released from prison after seventeen years inside. Tony Blundetto, also commonly called Tony B., is initially trying to reform his life and has interest in starting a massage therapy business. In due time, Blundetto returns to the life of . This makes Tony Soprano happy, and he begins to shower praise on his cousin. While Soprano has been supportive of Blundetto since his release, now that he is back in the family, Soprano can shower him with gifts. In the episode “,” Tony Soprano’s panic attacks have begun to resurface when he finds out that the killer of Joey Peeps, a member of the rival Mafia in City, walked away from the scene with a limp. Soprano had seen Blundetto earlier in the day with a limp of his own, but Tony Blundetto claims it came from an attack by some black guys the night before. The audience knows that Blundetto did it from the previous episode, but when Soprano confronts Blundetto about his potential involvement, he denies it.

In the meeting with Dr. Melfi in the next scene, Soprano is talking about solving a business issue with Blundetto, which transitions into Soprano giving praise to Tony Blundetto’s intelligence, claiming he has a 158 IQ. Dr. Melfi begins to question why he felt the need to bring up his IQ, which puts Tony on the defensive. During the next meeting in the episode is when Soprano reveals that he has another panic attack to Dr. Melfi, claiming “I thought I had this shit beat!” (“Unidentified Black Males”). Here Tony Soprano is showing a typical response to his 6 problems, by focusing simply on eliminating the symptoms, and not focusing on real solutions (Vincent 128). For some reason Soprano has not been forthcoming about his panic attacks, and whether this is simple reluctance by Soprano, or a fear of confronting the issue with Blundetto remains unknown. Tony Soprano's own roadblocks are one of the biggest things holding him back from recovery, and this meeting with Dr. Melfi encapsulates some of his fears about being in therapy (Vincent 129). After admitting to Melfi he had another panic attack, Soprano hides some of the truth behind the situation to either protect Blundetto or is simply in denial. As the session progresses, Soprano begins to open up more about the past. Soprano tells Melfi that he was supposed to be with Blundetto on the night that Blundetto was caught and sent to jail, and could not make it due to an attack from a "bunch of mulignans," again referencing the episode's title, "Unidentified Black Males."

Over the course of the next minute, something changes about Soprano's demeanor. We see that he is much more vocal, and his breathing starts to get harder. Melfi references the possibility of Soprano's guilt holding him back and causing these attacks, but before coming clean to Blundetto, Soprano must first come clean under the protection and guidance of Dr. Melfi after she asks if Soprano was potentially having an attack right there in her office. His confidence seems to be broken at this point, and Soprano initially deflects the accusation, but breaks down and says he actually had a panic attack that night when Blundetto was sent to jail. Soprano's wise guy shell cracks when he reveals the truth in the situation, as he begins to move around in the chair much more and cough. The guilt he has been carrying all this time is now no longer inside, and reflects how he has been treating Blundetto by coddling him and giving him preferential treatment over other members in the family by saying that "I thought I was smart, that's why I bumped him up and protected him. Turns out I'm just a fuckin' robot to my own pussy ass weakness" ("Unidentified Black Males"). Tony Soprano used the therapy session with Dr. Melfi to help overcome the guilt he has because of his past with Tony Blundetto. After turning off his denial about Tony B's killing of Joey Peeps, Soprano takes it upon himself to end the conflict between the rival families by killing Blundetto in the of the fifth season, showing that he has fully rose above his guilt. This revelation of personal weakness and humanity showed a sign of real growth in his sessions with Dr. Melfi.

Any relationship between therapist and patient leads to something revealing and intimate, and it can lead to the patient developing romantic feelings for his therapist. Even Tony Soprano is not immune to this phenomena, and begins to show signs of falling in love with Dr. Melfi, as early as the first season of the show (Gabbard 55).

In the fifth season premier, “The ”, things have changed for Tony Soprano. He is now split from his wife Carmela, and has been living on his own in the house that used to belong to his mother. Soprano wants to seeing Dr. Melfi again, but in something more than a professional facet. Tony gets the idea after watching the film The Prince of Tides, which features a relationship with a psychiatrist and patient that ultimately doesn’t work out. Soprano sends flowers and a gallon of Tide detergent to Melfi, as a way to reference the plot of the film. 7

That night, Dr. Melfi has a sex dream about Soprano. Despite his multiple advances throughout the episode, Dr. Melfi denies Soprano three times, even after Soprano grabs Mefi and kisses her in her office. While the relationship between Melfi and Soprano never materializes in reality, the usage of dream sequences is vital to dragging the audience along into thinking it might happen (Gabbard 71). This decision by the writers is contrary to a popular practice in film and television, where the relationship between doctor and patient is violated in the name of love. Examples are plentiful from films like Tin Cup, As Good as it Gets, and even going further back to classics like Spellbound and The Man who Loved Women. Both David Chase, the show’s creator, and Lorraine Bracco, who played Dr. Melfi, were opposed to the idea of seeing “symbolic incest” committed on screen (Gabbard 70).

Other Characters in Therapy:

Even though there was an initial backlash to Tony Soprano's visits to a therapist in the first season of the show, that plot line seems to vanish as the show moves on. In the series, other people turn to the aid of a therapist of some kind. 's () therapist comes initially in the form of an Italian stereotype, the catholic priest, named Father Phil (Vincent 136). She confides in the Father, but the relationship extends beyond his office, the church. He is seen at family functions, and spends time alone with Carmela as well. In the episode "," Father Phil comes over to the Soprano house when Tony and Meadow are looking at schools and AJ is at a friend's. When Father Phil arrives at the door, Carmela Soprano runs upstairs to make herself look decent before answering. Although she is ill, Carmela invites him in, and the night turns into a full-blown dinner date with Carmela heating up some baked ziti, drinking wine, and watching The Remains of the Day together. During the film, Carmela asks Father to turn off the movie, because she needs to get some things off her chest. The 'date' now turns into a confession booth, as Father turns his back to Carmela and pulls out his stole, drapes it around his neck, and begins the confession. Carmela begins to talk of Tony and his actions, claiming that she is "allowing what [she] knows as evil in [her] house," and that she has "forsaken what is right, for what is easy" ("College"). After the confession is over, the power dynamics have changed in the room. Carmela is now laying on the couch, and Father Phil is sitting on the other side, trying to console her. Even though Carmela feels that she has slighted God and let him down, she still wants to stand by Tony and love him. Father Phil has healed her transgressions, and seals it by offering Carmela communion. As Father gives her the body and blood of Christ, there are very intimate close ups of Carmela receiving each from Father Phil, with the fireplace burning behind them.

For a brief time, Dr. Melfi suggests that Carmela joins some sessions with Tony to help dig deeper and find some root causes of his panic attacks. The first occurrence of these joint sessions occurs in the episode, "" (Season 3, Episode 5). Ultimately, the session goes nowhere as an argument starts between Mr. and Mrs. Soprano. In a meeting a couple of episodes later, Carmela sees Dr, Melfi on her own because Tony didn't feel like coming, and upon realizing how deep Carmela's own issues go, she recommends Carmela to a 8 colleague of hers. In the one session she has with Dr. Krakower, Carmela is an emotional wreck as he delivers the blunt truth to her. Krakower advises Carmela Soprano that she should take the kids and run away, advice she was not really expecting. A man of principle, Dr. Krakower refused to take payment from Carmela because he "won't take blood money, and [Carmela] can't either" ("Second Opinion"). Carmela's emotional response in her various forms of therapy are perplexing, as one is accepted and embraced fully, but the help of a rational and logical therapist presents problems for the traditionalist inside Carmela.

When Carmela first visits Melfi's office, she is frustrated by Dr. Melfi's "inability to help [Tony]," also saying to Tony that "You've been coming here for three years, and you still pass out on a regular basis" ("Another Toothpick"). At this point in the series, Tony and Dr. Melfi had recently had one of their biggest breakthroughs, something Carmela is aware of, but she feels like the meeting is about finding a flaw in her that causes Tony's attacks. She takes this mentality with her to the meeting with Dr. Krakower, and crumbles under her own depression like her confession with Father Phil.

As someone who believes in the power of psychiatric help, it is unsurprising to learn that Dr. Melfi has a therapist of her own that she sees intermittently throughout the series, in a total of 14 episodes. First appearing in the episode "Toodle Fucking-oo" (Season 2, Episode 3), Dr. Elliot Kupferberg (Peter Bogandovich) is trying to help Dr. Melfi understand her treatment of Tony Soprano after running into him out at a restaurant. At this point in the series, Melfi and Soprano are still trying to patch up their professional relationship after the events at the end of the first season described earlier. So this run-in was not only unexpected, but also awkward for both parties. Kupferberg brings to the table this idea of two Jennifers, one being the person, and the other being the doctor. Dr. Melfi feels like a "ditzy, young, girl, and that she "regressed into the girl thing to escape responsibility for abandoning a patient" ("Toodle Fucking-oo"). That night, Dr. Melfi has a dream where Tony Soprano gets into a car accident due to a panic attack caused by the fact that Soprano has run out of Prozac. In the dream, Melfi drives by the wreckage in her car while non-diegetic music from the Wizard of Oz is playing. Upon awaking, she writes down every detail in her notebook.

The discussions that Dr. Melfi has with Kupferberg on another level of psychiatry in comparison to her interactions with Soprano. There is no resistance from the patient due to the fact that "Melfi and Kupferberg are able to participate in discourse with a foundation in mutual understanding and respect" (Vincent 137). There is no worry about the potential for violent outrages like Tony Soprano has the tendency to exhibit, and the focus is on the discussion between parties. In the episode "House Arrest" (Season 2, Episode 11), Melfi is discussing her increasingly aggressive behavior, and Dr. Kupferberg is thinking that it has come from treating Tony Soprano as a patient. Dr. Melfi looks significantly different here in this moment compared to earlier meetings. She is less formally dressed, and is sitting off to the side of the couch, rather than straight up. Melfi's glasses are also not on either, again signaling that she is in a vulnerable state. Kupferberg is worried about Melfi's "inability to bring the therapy to a conclusion," and is 9 concerned that she starting to become obsessed with Soprano, now that he has become Melfi's patient again.

Interestingly enough, Kupferberg is responsible for the ending the therapy sessions between Tony Soprano and Dr. Melfi. Vincent believes that Melfi's obsession with Tony Soprano is similar that same one the audience shares with him, and that the show challenges that obsession with Soprano by subversively getting the audience to question the morality of his actions (137). Kupferberg has seen this obsession evolve over the course of multiple years now, and his efforts to push Melfi away from Soprano only continue. In the episode, "The " (Season 6, Episode 20), Melfi and Kupferberg are at a dinner party with colleagues, and they are discussing work and one of the guests brings up a study talking about how the talking cure can actually backfire and make sociopaths better criminals, and in that instant the scene cuts to Dr. Melfi giving Dr. Kupferberg a glare of acknowledgement, which he reciprocates. Melfi tries to temper the praise being given to the study, and starts to look nervous. At this point, Melfi calls out Kupferberg for getting the guests to bring up this topic so he can talk about "Lead Belly" (Tony Soprano), and he proceeds to spill the beans by calling the patient a "female opera singer, and a gangster" (""). This angers Melfi, as the rest of the group seems to be in awe of her prized patient. That night, Melfi reads the study mentioned at the party, called The Criminal Personality. The words really strike her, and in the next session with Soprano, Dr. Melfi officially ends the therapy.

Conclusion

Therapy functions as a good narrative device because it forces characters to talk about themselves and can be used by writers to reveal new information about someone in a unique and engaging manner. Tony Soprano’s sessions with Dr. Melfi commonly consists of a few minutes in length, but it is the one place in The Sopranos where we get to see the real Tony. In front of his Mafia associates, Soprano puts on a tough exterior to not give away any information or signs of weakness. In front of his wife and kids, Soprano is trying to hide the real truth of what he does for a living. Inside Melfi’s office, Soprano can talk about his problems, whether they are related to work or his home life. As an audience, Soprano’s meetings with Dr. Melfi are when we see Soprano for who he really is, someone who has a past that still haunts him. Between his mother, uncle, and old friends who have been released from prison, someone seems to be a thorn in his side. Battling these panic attacks was something that hindered Soprano for years, and his journey in therapy with Dr. Melfi became one of the most compelling stories in television in the 2000s. The experience was best summed up by Tony Soprano in the episode “Unidentified Black Males.” He said to Dr. Melfi that "sometimes what happens in here is like taking a shit.” 10

Works Cited:

Gabbard, Glen O. The Psychology of the Sopranos: Love, Death, Desire and Betrayal in America's Favorite Gangster Family. New York: Basic Books, 2002. Print.

Lavery, David. This Thing of Ours: Investigating the Sopranos. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Print.

Plourde, Bruce. "Eve of Destruction: Dr, Melfi as Reader of The Sopranos." Reading the Sopranos: Hit TV from Hbo. Ed. David Lavery. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006. 69-78. Print.

Sepinwall, Alan. The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers and Slayers Who Changed TV Drama Forever. S.l.: Alan Sepinwall, 2012. Print.

Vincent, Christopher J. Paying Respect to the Sopranos: A Psychosocial Analysis. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland, 2008. Print.

Yacowar, Maurice. The Sopranos on the Couch: Analyzing Television's Greatest Series. New York: Continuum, 2002. Print.

The Sopranos: The Complete Series. Prod. David Chase. Perf. James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco. HBO Home Video, 2009. DVD.