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.

In Treatment 3x18

In her previous session, before she was leaving, Frances mentioned she had received the breast cancer test results, but had not looked at them yet – and walked off. Now she sits in the room letting minutes pass by in awkward silence without saying a word, waiting for Paul to ask her about the test results. She used her supposed difficulty memorizing her lines to get in the door, while really what she was worried about was that she would test positive and would die the way her mother did, and the way her sister now is dying, and that the way her daughter would die if she passed it on. So, when Paul finally asks her what she is thinking about, she starts talking about her daughter. Izzy had texted her that Patricia “looks like a skeleton.” Yet, instead of visiting her sister in the hospital, Frances went out with the cast and went home with one of the younger actors. He caressed her breasts and made her feel better about herself. She still hasn’t opened the letter with the results. She asks Paul to read it for her – which he does, but he hands the letter back to her. It’s the best possible news she could have hoped for, as she tested negative. Still she remains reluctant to face her dying sister, now coming up with the excuse that it would be inconsiderate to shove her good news into Tricia’s face. Adamantly, Paul insists she must see her sister before it’s too late and she will forever regret it. Frances dashes off in anger.

In Treatment 3x14

Frances is an entirely different animal from the previous session when she stormed out in anger because Paul refused to help her read her lines. She was terrified the preview would turn out a disaster. Now she is dejected yet resigned, although she’s had a great week on stage to laud applause. She has every reason to feel satisfied, yet she is quiet, reluctant to talk about anything, and still insecure about herself. She keeps talking about what other people think of her – her mother, her sister, her daughter, her ex-husband, even Paul – and how she feels she has disappointed them all in her life. She always felt inadequate around Russell and his intellectual friends. She apologized to Patricia for discouraging her from pursuing an acting career, but was hurt that her sister said she is glad she led a “real life.” Frances admits she stopped visiting her mother in her last days, feeling guilty Isabel came all the way to New York in her state to attend her premiere. She has been trying to live up to everyone’s expectations, putting up a performance her whole life, that she has no idea how to judge herself. The problem with her is that she is so passive-aggressively manipulative that it is impossible to know when she is telling the truth. Paul is aware that she contradicts herself every session, but makes no bones about it. Instead, he emphasizes that her feeling of inadequacy and disappointment comes from within, and that she needs to consider her own self-worth. Frances didn’t speak about her breast cancer test, but at the end of the session we learn she got the results, but hasn’t opened them yet.

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?

In Treatment 3x06

Frances is still having trouble remembering her lines during rehearsal, even though she can quote them verbatim off stage. She’s afraid to come off as frivolous or ridiculous or pathetic complaining about forgetting her lines, about her stage director, about getting older, about not having had sex for two years, and what not. She is comparing herself to her sister who is taking her breast cancer in such great strides. Her teenage daughter seems to prefer her father and aunt over her, and has a boyfriend with whom she may start having sex. She felt her husband would lose interest in her the moment she got pregnant. It is fair to say that Frances is very insecure about herself and needs constant praise for what she does to maintain a sense of purpose. She has faced the loss of her husband (after he had an affair) and of her daughter, now her sister is dying, and the high risk that she may test positive for the breast cancer gene test may mean she might lose her breasts. Paul had called her sister Patricia to show his concern and realized Frances hadn’t been truthful when she told him she had been talking to her sister about seeing Paul. She confesses and promises to talk with Patricia before the next session.

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.