BEg2 chapter 4 - more about Shawn & his emotherapy

[Michael Bailey]

Despite her ability easily to find deficiencies in Shawn’s professional
qualifications, Maxine has chosen him.

I think a lot depends on the labeling - NY state has licensing laws for
various kinds of therapists, but “emotherapist” must fall outside the
definitions of any of those.

Seems like he lives in the walk-up: the dozen identical Armani suits in the
closet, and the verbiage “he works out of” suggest a home office.

This may be part of a retro- oldtimey doctor’s drawing room vibe that
brings in people not as drawn to the steel-and-glass, clinical, surgical,
statistical professionalism evinced, nay, embraced, by many of the helping
professions, as to a personal touch, a hint of mystery, and a bit of
right-brain woo.

(Me too)

Not just this session, but several, have featured Shawn’s outrage at the
Taliban and their destruction of ancient Buddha statues in Bamiyan,
Afghanistan.

The Met, inter alia, had offered to buy the Buddha statues. Mullah Omar
turned them down. Really not good diplomatically or financially.

Shawn’s anger runs high - he utilizes detournement on the word “Islam” by
interpolating a space to make the phrase “I slam,” as if that proved
anything.

Kind of like Reg’s response to Maxine when she set her imagination loose
upon the meaning of the ACFE seal, Maxine’s calming influence here takes 3
forms.

First, she reminds him that Buddhists have a saying themselves, “If you
meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” (Which, wtf in the 1st place,
imho?!?!?!!)

He rejects that by claiming that that advice only pertains to Buddhists,
and that this is a political action.

Secondly, she questions his anger, given that he is supposed to be above
these considerations, to which he only replies, “Overattached me.”

Much less thought on the second pass!

His third gambit is the “Islam/I slam” word salad, and it’s here that
Maxine resorts to the calmative humoring of describing his comment as
“thought-provoking” - so similar to Reg’s “Interesting thought, Maxine,” in
Chapter 2.

Having to calm Shawn down *is* probably actually therapeutic for Maxine;
retrieving calmative formulas, including the one Reg had used successfully
on her, is good practice.

Shawn seems satisfied - that is, having glanced at his Tag Heuer (5 digit
price tag I think) watch while miming his mangling of Islam, he skips right
past showing mollification -

as if, as a practiced client, she too will be aware of her accomplishment
here -

And announces an end to the session so he can watch a canonical
emo-behavior guide: The Brady Bunch.

They are always talking about and alert to each other’s feelings about
every little thing under the sun on that show! Except when they miss them -
but then somebody realizes, and they talk about that.

They are the opposite of Horst’s alexithymism!

The Bradys have, like, emorrhea. (One might say, in the nicest way
possible.)

But why aren’t we all more alert and responsive to each other’s feelings? I
begin to see the attraction.


There are references to the 3 part Hawaii trip - BB4:1,2,3 - was this the
first sitcom such?

I remember that My Three Sons in the 60s went to Ireland or Scotland…and
pretty sure Our House went to Hawaii, but that was the 80s.

Anyhoo, there’s no sign that Maxine goes away any otherwise than satisfied.

Why it is she’s drawn to BB2:15, Will the Real Marsha Please Stand Up, is
left for the reader.

Unless there are hidden clues, eh?