Therapy as a Device Therapy as a Device in in

The Prince of TidesThe Prince of Tides

Savannah Wingo

“generalissimo of the cuckoo’s nest” (138)“in the wacko ward” (161)“She’s in a nut house with scars all over her body,

barking at dogs that only she can see. I’m her feckless brother trying to tell you stories that will illuminate her past and make you put Humpty Dumpty back together again” (292).

•Savannah’s latest suicide attempt is a catalyst for the narrative; however, she is ironically a marginal character

The Southern Wayby R. Halpern

• “It was the writing of the children’s book that had sent her reeling back into the weightless harmonics of her madness…she realized she was describing one of those lost interludes in her life…she could feel missing elements…the three men struck a particularly mordant chord…the Infant of Prague joined forces with the chorus of voices within her” (386-387).

• Therapy through writing—a cathartic action

• “The Rosetta stone” (390)

• “Savannah is good enough to write that story so it could shake up the whole world. It didn’t deserve to be prettied up and read to kids at bedtime…there won’t be any chatty spiders or cute dogs or inarticulate calves stuttering out messages to the King of the Bulls or any of that horseshit” (390).

Bernard WoodruffLearning football is a form of therapy for Bernard: by submitting to Tom’s authority, he develops as a player and as a person. However, the story implies that Bernard’s personal issues will disappear once he makes the JV team—though this is consistent with Tom’s 6-week miracle cure for a lifetime of mediocrity.

“I don’t like you at all. I don’t like the way you treated me. I don’t like your attitude. You’re a mean, unhappy bastard and I don’t know if football can help you or not…you don’t look like you’ve ever had any fun in your whole life” (211).

“I saw that flare of adolescent underlip, the insubordinate bravado and vulnerable sneer that young boys in their powerlessness sometimes assume will mask their own fear of exposure” (207).

“Lowenstein”• Tom distrusts the profession and particularly Lowenstein,

whom he initially addresses by last name only

• Conroy’s choice to make the psychiatrist a Jewish woman—polar opposite to Tom’s Roman Catholic male-centric upbringing

• “The therapy was so exhilarating. A therapist should not feel that kind of exhilaration. You need to remain calm, aloof, and professional…I made a mistake, Tom. I wanted to be known as the therapist who made it possible for a poet to write again…from your description of Colleton, it sounds as though the whole town was suffering from some collective psychosis” (387).

• Attraction to fame

Who is Tom Wingo?Who is Tom Wingo?

•“It is an art form to hate New York City properly” (27).•“Oh, me? I’m an asshole. A card-carrying, lifetime member” (91).•“How I loathed being a man, with its fierce responsibilities, its tally of ceaseless strength, its passionate and stupid bravado. How I hated strength and duty and steadfastness…strength was my gift; it was also my act, and I’m sure it’s what will end up killing me” (46).•Blames his family at the same time he embraces their idiosyncrasies•“the feminist coach” (141)•“Help me. Help me” (58).•A MEDIOCRITY

Primarily, he is an unapologetically Southern man, trapped by a heritage he compulsively attacks and defends in turn

The Role of Therapy• Allows individuals to purge their bottled-up

emotions—this is particularly true for Tom and for Bernard.

• Permits communication between characters

• “You needed an escape…anyone can understand that. Especially me” (556).

• “‘I’m going to make it, Tom’…then, looking at the sun and the moon again, she added, ‘Wholeness, Tom. It all comes back. It’s all a circle’” (566).

• “Whenever we were hurting or damaged or sad, whenever our parents had punished or beaten us, the three of us would go to the end of the floating dock, dive into the sun-sweet water, then swim out ten yards into the channel and form a circle together by holding hands. We floated together, our hands clasped in a perfect unbreakable circle…all of us would inhale and sink to the bottom of the river, our hands still tightly joined” (380).

“I wanted to seek the asylum of slow currents, deep places, river bottoms…in real life, I could not even shield the soft veins of [Savannah’s] wrists from her own interior wars” (381).