Sunil, Week 6

The conflict between Sunil and Julia escalates, and Julia becomes injured. Although Julia claims to have been pushed into a bookcase where she received a cut from a raised nail head, the careless way she hangs her purse on top of her wound suggests a lack of soreness in the area, which in turn suggests that had it not been for the nail, her arm would have received no trauma at all. This suggests that Sunil's version of the incident is probably more accurate, that he pushed past Julia because she refused to move, giving her a push that ordinarily would not have caused her to lose her balance. Sunil, however, can be seen as the instigator of the incident because he began teaching the children a Bengali song even though Julia had outlawed such instruction. So he was looking for trouble, which Julia instantly recognized and obliged. Her falling against the bookcase may have been accidentally caused by the fact that her daughter was hanging onto her leg, but it is also possible that she staged the fall for Arun's benefit to dramatize how much of a troublemaker his father had become. Arun's medical opinion was that the wound was easily treated without stitches, but Julia insisted on going to the emergency room, again possibly to dramatize the seriousness of the conflict between her and his father.

Julia decides to end Sunil's treatment because it hasn't done any good, while Paul argues that it has. They of course have differing opinions because they have different goals in mind. As far as Julia is concerned, the point of treatment was to bring Sunil under her control, while Paul's goal related to increasing Sunil's psychological well-being. Julia evidently hoped that therapy would make Sunil more docile by teaching him how to adapt to life under her rule. Paul's aims of helping Sunil to express and understand his anger and to formulate his own goals therefore have no chance of pleasing Julia.

Sunil brings a cricket bat he found to Paul's office, requesting that Paul keep it for him as a kind of memento, suggesting that he is afraid he might use it on Julia were he to bring it home. It is really difficult to know how seriously to take this implied threat, even if Sunil did murder Malini in his youth. Sunil has lived a respectable life for nearly 30 years, a life possibly predicated on a repression of the memory of having killed Malini. He has stated that he cannot stand living with Julia any longer, which explains why he takes every opportunity to make trouble for her and why impulses of harming her come to the surface. These impulses probably arise to alarm Sunil rather than prompt him to act on them. He becomes alarmed enough to ask Paul for help in dealing with them through the ploy of asking him to keep the cricket bat. Nevertheless, even if Paul had agreed with everything I said, it is understandable and prudent that he violate patient confidentiality by calling to warn Julia.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• In Treatment
• Sunil

[Nusrat5791]

can he do that legally, warn julia? given that he is only divining intent, using medical training which, to be frank, is hardly empirical science.

[ControlMastery]

@Nusrat5791 A lot would depend on what he actually said, which we don't know.

[Waltham1892]

I get the impression that Sunil is manipulating Paul. Because he lacks the force of will to tell his son he no longer wants to live with him, he is going to get Paul to do it for him.

[ControlMastery]

@Waltham1892 He seems to be manipulating everyone for the reason you say, because he needs everyone's help if he is to leave.

[starrfist]

@Waltham1892 You can torrent all the seasons ;-) That's how I've watched all the episodes.

[Waltham1892]

Look up Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California. I know its can be found on wikipedia.

Under certain circumstances a clinician has a duty to warn whenever there is reason to believe a client poses a threat to an individual or identified group...

[Waltham1892]

@starrfist No, I haven't. I don't get HBO. After watching clips of this show I'm sorry I don't...

[starrfist]

@Waltham1892 Have you seen the final episode with Sunil?

[Waltham1892]

@jtclaf Not a Rogerian I guess?

[jtclaf]

If I was Paul, I would throw this bitch right out of my office and tell her to take her check and stick it.