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Work/Life: HBO's "In Treatment"--There's Room On the Couch For All of Us

• I don’t know if you’ve been drawn into “In Treatment” the way I have; perhaps it fulfills one’s need to feel better by getting a glimpse of people who are worse off than you, or perhaps it is just pretty darn well done.  Either way, or both ways, it is worth noting that in a show devoted to the therapeutic process, every single one of the five storylines involves a work/life imbalance.
• On Mondays, Paul (the shrink, who is himself married to an unfaithful spouse) sees a young woman who confesses her romantic feelings for him in session, sending our hero into a spiral of confusion over his role in the workplace (as of this writing, he has handled it without destroying any lives, but we all know that’s what season finales are for).   On Tuesdays, Paul treats a Navy pilot unwilling to admit that he has been traumatized both by dropping a bomb on civilians and by his overachieving father (whom we meet in a later episode and soon discover he has issues of his own).  Wednesday brings a teenage gymnast to Paul’s office, driven to intense adolescent dysfunction by the pressures of being an Olympic hopeful.  Thursday means couples counseling, and the workaholic wife who feels obliged to humiliate her under-achieving husband.  Finally, on Fridays, the shrink gets shrunk by another shrink, although it is clear from the get-go that it is difficult for both of them to keep their professional lives out of the discussion.  
• In a “reality”-driven media landscape littered with people who routinely sink to new lows in order to achieve notoriety, it often seems like the idea of work/life balance is given short shrift.  I certainly don’t claim that the creators of “In Treatment” even thought about this common thread in their program, perhaps seeing the storylines as providing good drama and nothing more.  But, lo and behold, all the problems these folks are facing can be traced to not knowing when to quit.   Granted, it would not make nearly as enticing a television program to plunk one of us lightweights down in an analyst’s office and have us confess that we ordered in at the office after 9pm again.  After all, confessing such a thing in the early stages could lead to some progress, and progress will not help glue any eyeballs to any television sets.  Let’s face it; do we tune in to watch somebody realize what a jerk they’re being and happily depart with the resolve to be more open and loving?  No way!  We watch shows like “In Treatment” to watch people melt down, just like we know we might one day if we don’t, well, get treatment. 
• Ironies abound.  Not the least of which is the fact that most television shows are made on a grueling schedule that allows cast and crew virtually no time to spend with their loved ones.  So, the very people allowing me to implode vicariously through a cast of troubled misfits may well be headed for the very same psychotic break their fictional characters are playing out for them every day on the set.  Oh, well.  I guess that means that, unlike most of us who are struggling with work/life issues, their gradual mental disintegration is fully catered.