A PSYCHOANALYTIC PORTRAIT
Patient: F.
Doctor: Lorna May
SESSION N.1
PRESENTING PROBLEMS AND SITUATION:
F. is an almost middle-aged man with the heart of a child. Like all musicians, he’s unstable and an asshole. F.’s relationship with life is very much bound to his relationship with art.
PURITANISM seems to be the main concern. We might describe him as an “artistic puritan”. This remark is based on the foundations of his taste in music and cinema.
F. presents a compulsive obsessive interest on whatever is related to the Jazz Age.
An art critic, studying his case from a farther angle, might end up with the conclusion that as a jazz musician, his puritanism is only praiseworthy. F., being gifted of an inhuman perfectionism and totalitarian control over the use of his hands (normally linked with classic pianists) doesn’t obviously want to be influenced (in worst-case scenarios – contaminated) by other music genres. His rejection of art discovery is an early sign of senile dementia.
The same applies to cinema. F.’s film education, unsurprisingly, also dates back to the Jazz age (note his shock after watching Mulholland Drive). The only modern director that F. appreciates is Woody Allen, we presume the reason being the use of jazz music in his pictures, his fascination with neurotic women (probably linked to the complicated relationship with his mother) and the similar personality traits with the author.
The same puritan attitude applies to his circle of friends and lifestyle. We can finally agree, that F. lies unthreatened, in his self-made bed of wine and roses, living in denial of reality.
His puritanism also extends to his romantic relationships. An example being his 10 years commitment to a “Blue Jasmine” kind of woman, someone who is nearly always putting on a pretence caused by insecurities about her fading beauty which are continuously emphasised by her need to be hidden from bright lights and her need for sexual admiration by men.
In this specific scenario, by puritanism, we mean F.’s need of comfort and stability, which was tragically provided by an uncomfortable and unstable woman.
After all, a golden cage of appearances, leaving F. (a man who finds catharsis in love) emotionally raw.
CURRENT SYMPTOMS/BEHAVIORS:
F. has recently come into contact with a young actress by the name of L., a woman who’s not excellent at anything, but good at everything.
The gods threw the dice – L. found F. when she needed music in her life, and F. found L. when he needed cinema in his.
Just to put things into perspective; we might fairly describe L. as a fearless wonderer. An art time-traveller, a hedonist – opposed to puritan F.
Her open-mindedness at first enchanted our patient who soon became loving and a little over-exited, most recently showing signs of unassertiveness and fear (there’s only one fear and that is the fear of the unknown/ignorance).
It’s only logical to assume that the patient has been deeply moved by this free-spirited woman, artistically and emotionally.
Therefore, we categorise F.’s sudden change of behaviour as xenophobic.
The patient presents a subtle mix of fear and pleasure by the emblematic nature of this woman, an actress, a thief, who steals souls and makes them hers…who influences/contaminates F.’s puritan persona with art and kisses.
It’s with no doubt that we say that the patient is in a cloudy state-of-mind for the time being. This momentary hesitation and perhaps scepticism could be translated into oblivion.
The patient has shown a desire to drastic lifestyle changes – mostly to accommodate other’s visions, we’d assume. Changes which don’t fit at all with his nature.
We fear suicide.
TREATMENT:
Prozac – 20 mg once a day
Coffee – one New York mug a day
Cinema – one seance per week
Switch poems to prose
SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT HISTORY:
None reported.
