In Treatment 3x22

Descriptive adjectives keep coming to the Cricket’s mind when seeing Frances’ behavior in therapy: passive-aggressive, manipulative, evasive, needy, begging for attention, feeling judged, blaming others yet guilt-ridden, scared and angry, narcissistic and lonely, in a word, pathetic. Her sister Patricia is now literally on her deathbed and all she wants to talk about is being hungry and looking tired. I say “looking tired,” because she is more concerned about her appearance than she is about herself. She walked out of the theater just before curtain call on opening night to be with her sister. She was there to help Patricia, bathed her, put her to bed, gossiped with her, read her a bit from Jane Eyre. Trish showed her appreciation, perhaps for the first time in her life, saying she loves Frances. Then they had to go to the hospital, as Trish’ condition worsened. Frances felt pushed aside by the nurses, felt judged by her daughter Izzy (who called her a narcissist after her mother told her she tested negative for the BCRA1 test), and suddenly decided to quit the theater to care for her sister full-time. It has been difficult for Paul to connect with Frances, to break through her protective shell, and though they share a moving moment when she talks about her sister, he cannot help being skeptical about her motives. Has she decided to move in with Patricia to prove (Izzy, Paul, herself) she is not a narcissist? Frances keeps returning to Izzy’s scathing remark and asks if it is possible for a narcissist to change. Just at that moment Izzy knocks on the door because Trish’ condition has worsened still. Maybe an interesting side note to observe how Paul himself might be considered a narcissist like Frances, and like her was entrapped by his mother as a child.