In Treatment 3x02

Paul Weston’s second new patient this year, Frances (Debra Winger), is a well known movie and stage actress who has trouble remembering her lines. Paul tries to find a way through her evasive façade fast to find out what may trigger her mind blanking. She’s divorced not too long ago, and her teenage daughter is acting up. She’s struggling with a sense of guilt, but refusing to accept she bailed out on her daughter. She’s insecure about her age, but is defiant about that, too. And then, after ranting on about one thing after another, and losing her train of thought, she blurts out that her sister (who used to be Paul’s patient eighteen years ago) is sick, stage-four breast cancer and doctors have stopped chemo-therapy. Paul suggests she deliberately came to him to learn more about her sister, that she may have chosen her new job to escape the troubles in her life, and that she may be losing her train of thought during rehearsals just as she did earlier when she got angry. After her time is up, Paul calls a doctor acquaintance for a referral to a neurologist. Last year his father died of Parkinson’s, and now Paul’s hands are starting to tremble. Could it be a symptom? So, while Frances was rattling on about teenagers and divorce, getting older and death, all of that was hitting home painfully.