"The Shrink Next Door" concerns a man, Marty, with boundary issues.
Marty has just ended things with a girlfriend, and she wants reparations. Specifically, she wants a Mexico vacation once promised to her. Marty is so "at sea" that he believes he still owes this person a trip to Mexico.
The Mexico discussion seems to be the "inciting event" -- the thing that gets Marty into therapy. But he hasn't just chosen any old therapist; he has chosen Ike, a charismatic licensed psychiatrist and con man who basically takes over his life.
Ike seems to make Marty fire his own sister. (The sister is problematic in her own ways, inventing her own hours, using work time to chat on the phone, but the podcast doesn't fully get into that.) As a juvenile form of retaliation, the sister goes to Zurich and robs a bank--takes, from Marty, possessions that an ancestor had left behind.
Here, Marty does something even more shocking: He severs relations with both his sister and his sister's small child. Then the world spins out of control. Ike seizes the reins of Marty's business, invents false personae who seem to mistreat employees and clients, begins throwing lavish parties on Marty's estate, engages in inappropriate flirtations with people in his care, and "gives to charity" big piles of money that aren't really his.
Ike refers to his clients as "la familia" -- and, wisely, the podcasters pick up on this term and highlight it, suggesting that Ike is running something like a mob family, or a cult.
This is a reasonably entertaining story and it has Janet Malcolm-ish touches. Malcolm is interested in ways in which narratives can be inevitably self-serving, and you see that again and again here, particularly with Marty's sister. Malcolm also enjoyed considering the phenomena of false personae, and that's a fun feature in this podcast, as well.
What seems to be missing is a sense of advocacy. In other words, by episode four, I'm a bit tired by Ike; I feel I know him, more or less. Instead of additional Ike stories, I'd like for the podcaster to get boldly philosophical. What can you learn from a story like this? What do we owe to other people? When is a person "duped," and when is a person complicit in changes occurring within his own life? Non-fiction writers can say to a reader (or listener), "Here's what you can remember if you find yourself in a similar situation. Here's how I, as a reporter, can advocate for you."
Maybe these questions (and musings) will come later; I haven't finished the series. But that's what is on my mind now. My husband and I enjoyed these first few episodes, and will very likely go back to finish the story.
Marty has just ended things with a girlfriend, and she wants reparations. Specifically, she wants a Mexico vacation once promised to her. Marty is so "at sea" that he believes he still owes this person a trip to Mexico.
The Mexico discussion seems to be the "inciting event" -- the thing that gets Marty into therapy. But he hasn't just chosen any old therapist; he has chosen Ike, a charismatic licensed psychiatrist and con man who basically takes over his life.
Ike seems to make Marty fire his own sister. (The sister is problematic in her own ways, inventing her own hours, using work time to chat on the phone, but the podcast doesn't fully get into that.) As a juvenile form of retaliation, the sister goes to Zurich and robs a bank--takes, from Marty, possessions that an ancestor had left behind.
Here, Marty does something even more shocking: He severs relations with both his sister and his sister's small child. Then the world spins out of control. Ike seizes the reins of Marty's business, invents false personae who seem to mistreat employees and clients, begins throwing lavish parties on Marty's estate, engages in inappropriate flirtations with people in his care, and "gives to charity" big piles of money that aren't really his.
Ike refers to his clients as "la familia" -- and, wisely, the podcasters pick up on this term and highlight it, suggesting that Ike is running something like a mob family, or a cult.
This is a reasonably entertaining story and it has Janet Malcolm-ish touches. Malcolm is interested in ways in which narratives can be inevitably self-serving, and you see that again and again here, particularly with Marty's sister. Malcolm also enjoyed considering the phenomena of false personae, and that's a fun feature in this podcast, as well.
What seems to be missing is a sense of advocacy. In other words, by episode four, I'm a bit tired by Ike; I feel I know him, more or less. Instead of additional Ike stories, I'd like for the podcaster to get boldly philosophical. What can you learn from a story like this? What do we owe to other people? When is a person "duped," and when is a person complicit in changes occurring within his own life? Non-fiction writers can say to a reader (or listener), "Here's what you can remember if you find yourself in a similar situation. Here's how I, as a reporter, can advocate for you."
Maybe these questions (and musings) will come later; I haven't finished the series. But that's what is on my mind now. My husband and I enjoyed these first few episodes, and will very likely go back to finish the story.
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