Searching for Self

“I used to spend hours when I was a kid just looking in the mirror, trying to figure out if I was handsome or not. It just depended on the day. If someone told me I was handsome, then I was handsome, and if someone told me I was ugly, then I believed that. I hardly ever look in the mirror anymore though, not if I can help it. It’s just too stressful.” – Jesse in In Treatment When Dane de Haan (as Jesse) appears for his last session in the HBO series “In Treatment”, it’s a shock both for the audience and for his therapist. He arrives with Angelo, his adoptive father — a man with whom we feel he has little in common — at least from what we know of Jesse through his therapy. His therapist struggles to remain neutral in the face of this backflip — and Jesse’s choice to quit therapy. As viewers who have followed Jesse through his exploration of independence, we are also flummoxed — and disappointed, that this young man chooses to abandon therapy and what we might see as a search for his “true self.” Part of his struggle is in trying to come to terms with his attachments, both biological and adoptive. Having “tested out” his biological parents by turning up at their home under the influence of drugs and asking them for money, he rejects them on the basis that they appear to have rejected him. Jesse’s step-father Angelo is waiting in the wings to provide reconciliation and the acceptance that the young man crav...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Borderline Personality Children and Teens Memory and Perception Narcissism Psychology Self-Esteem Child Development chronic emptiness Identity identity formation integrated identity Personality Disorder Self Awareness Source Type: news