In Treatment 3x10

When I think about Frances in this session, mostly descriptive adjectives come to mind. She is anxious, defensive, guilt-ridden, passive aggressive, deceitful, insecure, worried what people think about her, overly sensitive, concerned about her looks, apprehensive about getting old, unwilling to lay any blame on her mother (so there clearly are issues there), upset about being compared to her sister Patricia, jealous of her, convinced Patricia is punishing her – for becoming a famous actress and discouraging her from pursuing an acting career herself (telling her she was not very good at it, though she thought she was great and it came so much easier for Trish than for herself). She walks out moping like a child that she will be embarrassed in front of twelve hundred people at the preview performance and that she has no one to count on to help her with her lines, not even Paul. I am curious if the performance is really going to be as disastrous as Frances has feared, or if it will turn out a success – and in that case if it will soothe her into talking about the root of her insecurities. She chose a profession in which she is constantly being appraised, under critical scrutiny, subject of the public’s gaze staring at her, judging her. She never seems to have found a way to cope with that aspect of her career, and she is translating those anxieties into her private life. Will Paul be able to help her with that? Will she open up about her mother and accept that she and her sister were cast into roles unwittingly? Will she be able to make amends with Trish and her daughter Izzy?